On the Job Training
by Laura Picken
Summary: The Guardians of Shangri La get help to take their abilities to the next level. Caskett & Esplainie, but not the focus. Sequel to "Four Winds".
1. Chapter 1

Four Winds: On the Job Training

A Castle Fantasy AU/crossover with The Sentinel

By Laura Picken

This story is in the continuing series of Castle fan fiction based on my fantasy alternate universe story "Four Winds". The crossover aspect of this has allowed me to explain a lot, though, so you might be able to keep up if you haven't read "Four Winds". The story's on my author page, though, if you get lost.

If anyone has read the quick biography on my author page, then you'll know that I cut my teeth in the fan fiction world writing stories about the old UPN show "The Sentinel". So, after the legend left Kate Beckett with enhanced senses, this was the first sequel idea that came to mind. This will be written independent of most of the canon of "The Sentinel", and I'm writing with Castle fanfic readers in mind, so you do not need to have seen "The Sentinel" to keep up here.

For very loose timeline purposes, Castle fans can place this somewhere in the post-"Always" future: Castle and Beckett are a firmly established couple, Beckett's back on the force and Ryan has fought his way out of the doghouse. Season five might make it into the canon of this series if I'm still writing it in September, but right now I make no promises.

DISCLAIMER: The Sentinel is property of Pet Fly Productions. Castle, Beckett, et al. are property of Andrew W. Marlowe and ABC. The legends described herein are inventions of my own twisted imagination and should not be taken to reflect the traditions of any particular group. All non-English language phrases are courtesy of Google Translate, so please forgive me if I get anything unintentionally wrong.

Okay, enough business, let the adventure begin!

* * *

He rubbed the sweat off the back of his neck for the third time. He was tempted to complain about the heat...but there wasn't any. All he could see was jungle. Sweaty, sticky jungle. But then why was there no heat?

He walked around for what felt like hours, and the lack of direction was starting to frustrate him. He felt like he should be going somewhere, but where? Clearing the vines in front of him, he found a boulder large enough and flat enough for him to sit on for rest. The tigers came to sit at his feet, and he smiled, welcoming the company. He slid off the rock to the animals' level, letting the gentle rumble of their purring lull him into a restorative nap.

The active twisting of the tigers' heads woke him. He sat up and turned his head to line up with the way the tigers were facing. A black panther and a white wolf entered his field of vision, but stood at a distance, as if they were waiting for him to join them. When he stood, the tigers joined in, and the group broke into a run, tracking the panther and wolf with all the speed his gifts had given him.

Finally, he caught up with the animals, and the sight before him took his breath away. A collection of rivers poured their contents over five waterfalls into a crystal clear lake under a blanket of stars. He sat on a rock ledge near the edges of the lake and dipped his toes into the water, watching as the stars danced, shifted, and coalesced into a shape that looked to him just like the skyline of Manhattan...

* * *

Javier Esposito woke to the always pleasant sensation of having his beloved Lanie Parrish in his arms. He shook his head, trying to shake the feeling of post-vision disorientation from his mind. It eased off as he grew more awake, but the persistent sense that something was coming lingered in the back of his mind.

Lanie noticed the sense of uneasiness coming from her boyfriend. "Javi? Babe, is everything okay?"

Esposito nodded. "I'm fine. Just a weird dream, is all-"

"Bull," Lanie interrupted. "I know that look by now, Javi. What did you 'see'?"

"It was nothing that specific," Esposito replied. He then described the dream to Lanie, who frowned in contemplative confusion herself-an expression that Esposito was all to happy to point out to his girlfriend. "See! I told you it was weird."

Lanie agreed, "Yeah, it's definitely not like your usual visions. Wonder what it means..."

"Guess we'll find out," Esposito shrugged.

* * *

Blair Sandburg shook off the familiar disorientation that came with not getting nearly enough sleep as he stretched and yawned. He looked at his clock radio.

3:00am.

_This is going to be a very long day, _thought Sandburg. He sighed as the next thing in his bedroom that came into clear focus was his half-packed suitcase. Detective Jim Ellison, his friend, roommate and grad school observational study had drawn the short straw at his job, which meant that Ellison was now the Cascade Police Department's official delegate at the NYPD's upcoming conference on how to create an Anti-Terrorism Task Force.

Ellison was less than thrilled...and not just from the prospect of having to spend five days in what was likely to be one of the world's most boring conferences. Not wanting to have to face alone the miserable havoc that air travel seemed to inflict upon the detective's five heightened senses, Ellison had generously paid for Sandburg's companion ticket, giving the younger man the first opportunity he'd had to see more of New York City than just it's airports.

Sandburg had been thrilled at having the opportunity to visit his old friend Mark Schoenweiss and dig into the extensive collection of Sentinel research materials at the NYU library...until he woke up this morning. _That was such an odd dream, _thought Sandburg. He knew that the panther and wolf represented himself and his partner, but then who was the man he had seen? And what did the two tigers represent? Sandburg pushed himself to full wakefulness and got up to finish packing for the trip, trying and failing to push to the back of his mind the feeling that this trip was going to end up being anything but an easy research vacation.

* * *

Sandburg was getting frustrated. He had thought the archives of the NYU library were going to be a gold mine. Mark had assured him that the books the library had would spur his research on for the next five years, and Sandburg's backup search of the online library catalog confirmed that that university had at least a dozen books that he was practically drooling over getting the chance to look at.

So who the hell had grabbed every single book he was looking for?

Blair started to walk the halls of the library, trying to discreetly peek inside the study cubicles of anyone who had pulled more than two or three books. He was growing more and more determined to find those books, even if he had to walk through fifteen or twenty floors of the library to find them.

Finally, deep in a corner of the third floor he checked, Blair spotted a girl who looked like she was trying to bury herself in a pile of books. As he got closer, Blair recognized the top book on her pile as Burton's fifth Sentinel journal. He looked at the book, then at the girl. She was cute, but obviously young - he pegged her as an undergrad freshman or sophomore at the *most*. The girl's long red hair, though, reminded him of what he thought his mom might have looked like at that age. Blair quietly coughed a couple of times to get the girl's attention. "Excuse me," he asked, "Are you done with this?"

The girl jumped at the sound of Blair's voice, obviously startled. "Sorry," she remarked, catching her breath, "You startled me. Got too deep in my reading, I guess."

Blair smiled. He could relate. "Yeah. I do that all the time myself. Doing research for a paper?"

The girl started to shake her head, but stopped herself and nodded. "Yeah. Freshman English. They want to make sure we know how to do write a research paper or some such nonsense. Anyway, I caught an episode of that show Stan Lee's Superhumans and found it really interesting, y'know? So I did some digging and found out about all the books they have here."

Sandburg knew an obfuscation when he saw one, but decided to let it go...for the moment. "You're not a student here?" asked Blair.

The girl shook her head. "Columbia, actually. You?"

"I'm a grad student at Rainier, in Washington," replied Blair.

"Wow," exclaimed the girl in surprise, "you're a long way from home. Did you come all the way out here just to look at these books?"

"Something like that," Blair muttered. The shushing starting to circulate around them made Blair realize that they were starting to bother their neighbors, so he asked the girl, "Listen, how would you like to go to dinner with me, and we'll compare notes?"

The girl hesitated for a minute, but her curiosity overwhelmed her 'New Yorker' instincts and she caved in. "Okay." As she got up, she reached out her hand with a smile that Blair found completely disarming. "Alexis Castle."

He returned the handshake with a charming smile of his own. "Nice to meet you, Alexis Castle. Blair Sandburg."

* * *

"Man, that pizza..." Blair closed his eyes, savoring the memory of the flavors from dinner in his mind.

Alexis could only chuckle at her new friend's reaction. "What'd I tell you, Blair? Pizza is different in New York City. And it really does spoil you for almost anywhere else."

"Yeah," Blair agreed. "I get that now."

Alexis smiled, sipping at her iced tea as they crossed Washington Square Park. "Are you sure your friend won't mind helping me with this paper?"

Blair shook his head. "He won't mind at all. We *became* friends because of how much he loves talking about this stuff. That's why I came out here this week." _Well, part of the reason, at any rate._

"Okay." Alexis and Blair showed their IDs at the door to the school building and took the elevator down to the basement. She started to picture how her friends at the 12th would react if she'd ever told them (or worse, her dad) that she was going down to a room in the basement of the school with a man she barely knew. And yet, her gut was telling her that Blair Sandburg was someone she could trust.

She just hoped that her gut wasn't steering her wrong.

She realized that Blair had been talking all the way down to the basement, going on about some of the trouble he and Mark had gotten into when they were a little younger. She half listened until she realized they had gotten to the teaching assistant's door.

Blair knocked, "Mark? It's Blair." Surprised that his friend hadn't answered the door, he turned to Alexis and apologized, "We had planned to meet here after dinner this afternoon. He's probably listening to something on his computer." Blair started to turn the doorknob, only to find that it wasn't necessary.

The door opened slightly to show that, behind a mountain of papers, Blair's friend Mark Schoenweiss was at his desk, slumped over and very, very dead.


	2. Chapter 2

"So bro, you're *sure* you don't want us to bring anything on Friday night?"

"I'm *sure*. You have no idea how much food Jenny is cooking. I think she's trying to make up for the last time we went out together."

Javier winced, remembering the awkward, uncomfortable night that eventually led to his breakup with Lanie. "Don't remind me. Longest night of my life."

"Mine wasn't much better, trust me. Anyway, I can promise you that the M word will be off limits the entire night."

"You *swear*?" asked Esposito.

"Absolutely. And if all else fails, just ask her about the baby. I'm telling you, it's all she wants to talk about lately..."

All conversation between the two men ceased as they went past the crime scene tape and realized who one of their witnesses was. Blair stifled a gasp as the two cops approached him. _That can't be...he's the guy from my dream? _

The cops' attentions, though, were elsewhere. When Ryan and Esposito crossed immediately to her, Alexis cut off their first questions before they had even asked them. "Okay, first, I'm absolutely fine. Mark was Blair's friend, not mine. And second, yes, I called my dad, and he and Kate are on their way."

Esposito had a feeling about why Alexis jumped the gun. "Lanie's here?"

"She's inside," Alexis replied, slightly exasperated. "She actually tried to examine me before she went in to take care of the body."

_Examine her? _Blair mused, _Was that that ME who grabbed her by the hand earlier? How was *that* an examination?_

Ryan heard the trailing edges of the thoughts going through Blair's mind and decided it was time to change the subject. Turning to Blair, he asked, "You're Blair, I take it?"

He nodded, offering his hand in greeting. "Blair Sandburg, nice to meet you."

It was when Ryan shook the student's hand that he heard it. A wolf's howl. Trying to shake the odd thought from his mind, he continued, "So you are a friend of the deceased?"

"Colleagues, mostly," replied Blair. "We share the same field of research."

"Which is?" asked Esposito.

"People with enhanced sensory abilities," replied Blair.

Blair steadied himself to hear the same superhero cracks he'd heard ever since he had completed his master's thesis. When no such cracks came, though, and instead he noticed the quickfire glances of unspoken surprise between Alexis and the two cops, Blair's mind went racing. _If they think I'm crazy they're doing a damn good job of hiding it. Are they trying to protect Alexis...nah, I've been around her for hours now, I would have noticed...one of the cops, then? _

As Ryan continued to question Blair and Alexis about their evening, the victim and what led them to finding the body, Esposito started to look around the hallway for anything unusual. It was then that he noticed it...at the other end of the hallway. _The wolf from my dream...but why is he here now? Am I supposed to follow him from *here*?_

Ryan started to notice that his partner's attention was elsewhere. Switching to their more private form of communication, he asked, _Javi? What is it?_

_Bro, _replied Esposito, _when you get a chance, look back down the hallway._

Ryan turned to try and see the rest of the hallway out of the corner of his eye, then had to fight the urge to gasp and swivel his head when he saw it. _So *that's* what I heard..._

_Howling? _asked Esposito.

_Yeah, _Ryan replied.

_I had a dream about that wolf last night._

Ryan raised an eyebrow, then quickly wiped the surprise off his face. _Really? Any idea why we're seeing him here, now?_

Esposito had to fight the urge to physically shrug. _Not a clue._

Blair watched the two cops carefully. _Either these guys are the slowest note-takers I've ever seen, _he thought, _or something else is going on here. That hispanic cop turned his attention down the hall for a minute-did he see something? Did he zone on it?_

Alexis noticed with an increasing sense of uneasiness the way that Blair was watching her two friends, and decided they needed to wrap this up. Turning to Ryan and Esposito, she asked them, "Guys, do you have anything more you need to ask us?"

Esposito looked to his partner, who shook his head, then to Alexis and Blair. "Nah, that's it, Alexis, thanks." On a hunch, the detective then turned to Blair and asked, "Mr. Sandburg, do you have a number where we can reach you while you're here in New York if we have any more questions?"

"Sure," Blair replied, "let me give you my cell." Trying to act as casually as possible, he then asked, "So, Alexis, how do you three know each other?"

Alexis replied, a little too quickly, "They're friends of my dad."

"Really? Is your dad a cop?"

"Not...exactly."

As if on cue, Castle and Beckett exited the basement elevator. The worry in Castle's voice was evident. "Alexis!"

Alexis let out a loud sigh. She knew she didn't really need to pull her dad into this, but she also knew that the rest of the gang would have driven her crazy about it if she *hadn't* called. She met her dad at the crime scene tape as the officer on duty was taking Beckett's badge number to allow them to pass it. "Dad! It's okay! I'm fine!"

Castle's level of worry was eased - but only slightly? "What are you doing here, Alexis?"

"I was doing some research for my...paper," Alexis replied, hoping her dad would get the hint, "and ran into Mr. Sandburg here."

Blair offered his hand politely, "Blair Sandburg."

Never taking his eyes off his daughter, Castle quickly shook the other man's hand. "Richard Castle."

"Blair's a PhD student from Washington, dad. We got to talking in the library here and found out we share similar...interests. Blair came out to visit a friend of his who's an expert-"

Castle finished his daughter's sentence. "He's the guy you two found?" Alexis nodded.

Blair watched the conversation between father and daughter with one-track interest. _Impressive job of delivering the information without saying anything. Does he know what she's working on and she can't say it in public? Or is *he* the one she's protecting? Please, a cheesy crime novelist, a Sentinel? Hardly likely._

Beckett knew they were there mostly to placate Castle, the worried father. Still, she was well aware that some things needed to happen. "Did you give your statements to anyone yet?" Alexis nodded, so Beckett turned to her partner, "I'm going to go see if they need any help over there."

A voice the gang wasn't familiar with echoed down the hall. "Sandburg?"

Blair's eyes widened slightly in surprise as he turned to find his friend barreling down the hall. "Jim? What are you doing here?"

"I called when I got out of the conference, and you didn't answer your cell. When I tried *three more times*, I got a little worried. I'd call it force of habit, but clearly it might have been justified. What the hell happened, chief?"

"Remember Mark, that friend of mine I told you about who's a TA here? He's dead. Alexis and I walked in on...well..."

Jim let out a low whistle, "Jeez...sorry to hear about that, Sandburg. I know you two were good friends."

"Yeah, it was definitely a shock," commented Blair.

"Any idea how it might have happened?" Blair shook his head. Jim decided to eavesdrop a little on the examination of the crime scene to see if he could give his friend a little closure...


	3. Chapter 3

Beckett relaxed when she saw Lanie, Ryan and Esposito working the crime scene, knowing that it would be easier to work with her friends without stepping on anyone's toes. She went to Esposito and asked, "So what do we have?"

"Name's Mark Schoenweiss, 25, anthropology grad student and TA. I'm sure you know by now that Alexis and her friend Blair Sandburg found the body about an hour ago."

As Beckett took in everything she could about the body, the room and it's contents, she asked, "So what do we know about Mr, Schoenweiss?"

"Not much. Lives on campus, recently married...and he's a colleague in the same field as Mr. Sandburg."

_Don't keep me in suspense, _thought Beckett. "Which is-?"

"Studying the history of people with enhanced sensory abilities."

Beckett was floored. Not only was she not the only one with her particular set of abilities, there apparently had been enough of them throughout history for people to study the topic in college. "Anything else...unusual so far?"

Esposito knew where she was going immediately. In a low whisper, he asked, "You mean besides the additions to our little private zoo?"

"Private zoo?"

Esposito pushed Beckett toward the door so she could peek out. "Look down the hall by Castle & Alexis and tell me what you see."

Peeking around the corner as discretely as she could, Beckett described what she could. "Castle and Alexis...a guy with long curly hair-"

"That's Blair Sandburg," Esposito filled in, "what else?"

"A guy that pretty much screams ex-military, and-wait a second," Beckett turned to her friend, needing confirmation that she was seeing what she was seeing. "A grey wolf and a black panther?"

Esposito's eyes widened in surprise. "Hold up, the panther's here, too?" He ducked his own head quickly around the doorframe to confirm what Beckett had told him. "I had a dream about them last night."

"You did?" Beckett asked. "I take it this dream wasn't terribly specific?"

Esposito shook his head. "Sorry."

Beckett remembered something about Mr. Ex-military that struck her as odd. She ducked her head back out of the room again. _Something about his body position...like he's listening to someone..._She focused her hearing away from what was going on around her to find out exactly what Mr. Ex-Military was listening to...

* * *

"Jim?" Sandburg asked, "Everything ok?"

Ellison shook off the two-places-at-once feeling that sometimes happened when he was trying to listen to a conversation some distance away. In a low, private-conversation voice, he told his partner, "I was trying to listen and see what the police had found out about Mark's death."

Blair nodded. "And?"

"Apparently some of their detectives can see *our* spirit animals."

Blair momentarily lost the ability to breathe. "How-?"

"Beats me, chief..."

* * *

Beckett felt like the wind had been knocked out of her as well. _Apparently Mr. Ex-military-"Jim"-has been listening to *us*. Well, if he wants to know what evidence we have, let's see what evidence we have..._ She walked over to Lanie. "How's it going?"

"Wish I could tell you," replied Lanie, "but this one's got me scratchin' my head. It looks like he suffocated. But there's nothing that indicates he drowned, had a pillow pushed over his head, nothing, It's like he just sat down in this chair and stopped breathing."

Beckett crouched down next to the body. The first thing she felt was an unusual groove in his shoulder blades. "Lanie," Beckett asked, "if you held someone down with enough force, could you break their collarbone?"

"It's possible," Lanie mused, "but you'd have to be crazy strong or be holding them down for a while." Standing up, Beckett tried to guide her friend's hand to what she was feeling, but Lanie knew that was pointless. "I'll order the X-rays when we get back to the morgue. So you think he was held down in this chair?"

Beckett nodded. "There's also something weird on his breath that I can't really place..."_Might as well let the cat out of the bag... _As casually as if she were talking to Ryan or Esposito, Beckett asked, a bit nervously, "So what do you think, Jim?"

"Who's Jim?" asked Lanie, confused.

* * *

_She's testing to see if I can really hear her, _thought Ellison. He thought about what he had heard to that point; how the core group of detectives seemed to be so accepting of things most people would be called crazy for even voicing out loud. He decided to take a chance. Ellison looked straight at his partner as he replied, "Detective, my sense of smell is pretty good, but not *that* good. I'm a Major Crimes detective with the Cascade PD in Washington State, and Blair works with me as a consultant. Can we come through and examine the crime scene?"

* * *

Beckett let out the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. It felt like a dozen emotions were warring within her soul: relief that her theory had proven to be true, excitement at finding someone who shared her abilities, but also apprehension as to whether or not she *should* trust him with the full breadth of their crazy 'secret'. It helped that "Jim" was a badge, though-at least for the moment. "I'll come out and let you and Mr. Sandburg through," replied Beckett.

Lanie seemed to be putting two and two together even as the look of amazement grew on her face. "You mean you-and he-" Beckett's nod of confirmation floored her. "Wow...guess that explains that crazy dream..."

"Maybe, maybe not," warned Beckett.

Beckett left the office and walked down the hall to the waiting group. She reached out her hand, "I guess I should 'officially' introduce myself. Detective Kate Beckett, NYPD."

Jim shook her hand. "Detective Jim Ellison, Cascade PD. My partner, Blair Sandburg."

Beckett pointed over to the father and daughter who were waiting for her. "My partner, Richard Castle. And Mr. Sandburg has already met Alexis, his daughter."

Sandburg was practically jumping out of his skin with excitement. "You mean you-and he-oh man, I knew one of you..."

"One of you what?" asked Castle.

"Apparently Detective Ellison and I have several things in common," replied Beckett. She turned to Ellison for confirmation and asked, "Five things, I'm guessing?"

When Ellison nodded, it became Alexis' turn to connect the dots. She turned to her new friend. "Kate-and your friend Jim-so that's why you-wow."

Beckett couldn't help but laugh. "The excitement level between the two of you could power Manhattan for the rest of the night. C'mon, let's finish up here and then maybe we can answer each other's questions in a place that isn't so public?"

Ellison agreed immediately, and Beckett let the four of them in to the crime scene. Lanie was the first to introduce herself. "Dr. Lanie Parrish, medical examiner's office. You must be Jim?" When Ellison nodded, Lanie looked him up and down appreciatively. "He's cute..." she purred. Castle and Esposito protested immediately, which inspired Lanie to tease, "Hey, I can still *look*. I'm not *dead*, y'know..."

Beckett laughed off the obvious teasing while the new people on the scene donned gloves. Ellison took a casual look around, then turned to the body, examining the mouth carefully. "Yeah, I can definitely smell that. It was a liquid, that much I can tell." He rubbed the gums of the corpse with his fingers, then rubbed his fingers together and smelled them. "There's a couple of things that I can't place, but the base is definitely some combination of meth and ecstasy, that much I'm sure of."

"You can smell that?" asked Beckett, amazed.

Ellison nodded. "I've had a lot of practice."

"How long-?"

"About two years, I guess...it's something of a long story."

Sandburg had been watching the group from the doorway, trying to place the thing that he was *sure* he was missing. "How about you, detective Beckett?"

Beckett blushed slightly, not sure how much of the story she wanted to get into. "Two weeks...it's also something of a long story." She got up from her crouched position next to the body and asked Lanie, "Can you be as detailed as you can on the tox screen, Lanie? Whatever was in this kid's system I want to know about it."

"You might want to take some scrapings off his front teeth as well," chimed in Ellison.

"Really?" asked Beckett, "Why's that?"

Ellison replied, "You know that poison smell?" As Beckett nodded, Ellison continued, "Where is it most highly concentrated?"

Beckett sniffed in various places around the body, realization dawning on her almost immediately. "Just on his breath. No more than faint traces anywhere else."

"Which means-?"

"Which means that it wasn't just poured down his throat, or it would have gotten all over him. So the killers used some sort of funnel and tube mechanism to get it all down his throat, and we should be able to get rubber scrapings from his teeth." Beckett let out a small chuckle. "I'm starting to feel like a rookie again..."

Ellison commented with a wink, "Good thing I'm not much for rookie hazing rituals..."

Beckett let out another small chuckle as she scanned the room. The bookcase nearest the door caught her eye, and she moved closer to examine it. "This dent in the bookcase is new, I think."

"Why do you say that?" asked Ellison, in his best impression of his guide.

Looking carefully at the doorknob, Beckett explained, "there are traces of the veneer on this doorknob. If this dent were old, that veneer would have probably rubbed off or fallen off the doorknob by now."

Ellison smiled in approval. "So if this was done by our killer..."

"Killers," Beckett corrected. "This means there's probably more than one. There were no obvious signs of forced entry, which meant the first face Mark saw was a friend. But they were looking to overpower him quickly, so the rest of the team-however many there were-barged in pretty fast, which is what put this dent in the bookcase."

Blair was impressed. "You catch on quick, Detective Beckett."

Castle chimed in, "It seems like we all have some things to discuss. Shall we adjourn to the loft?"


	4. Chapter 4

"He has what?"

Castle gave Jim and Blair directions to the loft, then as soon as everyone else had left the crime scene, blinked the gang there-mostly because he wanted answers and was in no mood to wait for them. Of course, the answer that Castle got was definitely not what he was expecting...

"He has hyper senses, Castle, just like I do. And if he told me what I think he told me, it's all five," declared Beckett.

"And so you told him what-?"

"About the rest of it? Nothing. The only one they know about is me."

Ryan chimed in, "Sandburg suspected that we were protecting somebody as we were interviewing him. So I think that he knows that we know about Beckett's ability, but no more than that."

"So it's up to us how much we tell them?" asked Alexis. Beckett and Ryan nodded.

The ringing doorbell interrupted their argument. Castle opened the door to find the subjects of their argument standing behind it. "Detective Ellison, Mr. Sandburg, please come in..."

The pair entered, and as they sat down on the couch, Esposito's attention was immediately directed elsewhere. When he realized the significance of what he was seeing, he motioned to the rest of his team, "Uh, guys, can I see you in the kitchen for a minute?" Turning to their guests, he said, "Make yourselves comfortable, we'll be back in *one* second."

Ryan, Beckett, Castle, and Lanie joined Esposito in the kitchen. "What is it?" asked Ryan.

"I think we need to tell them everything," he told the group.

Castle was particularly flabbergasted. "You do? Why?"

"One thing the tiger told me in Macy's was that we would learn all of who we are soon. And in that dream the panther and the wolf led me to a place that was *good*, that much I remember. And when you combine that with what's going on *over there*, then I think that we're *supposed* to tell them."

"Over wher-" Ryan hoped to get clarification from his partner, but was stopped when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw what his partner was seeing. Making the same connections his partner did, Ryan told the group, "Guys, Javi's right. Look over there."

Castle, Beckett and Lanie turned to see what Ryan and Esposito were seeing, and recognized the connection immediately. Just in front of the loft's front door were the wolf, the panther, and both of Ryan and Esposito's tigers.

Playing like they were litter-mates separated at birth.

Lanie and Beckett started to giggle, then stopped themselves. Turning back to the group, Ryan asked, "So we're agreed? We tell them everything?"

"Tell us everything about what?" asked Ellison.

Realizing they were somewhat busted, Esposito sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose to try and stave off the approaching headache. Seeing the tension on her boyfriend's face, Lanie ran her fingers through his hair, and the headache dissipated instantly. Esposito mouthed her a silent "Thank you", for which she simply squeezed his hand in response.

"You'll have to forgive my friends, Detective Ellison," commented Beckett. "Sometimes even they forget that I *can hear everything*."

"No problem," Jim responded graciously. "Sometimes I think Sandburg forgets the same thing."

The two men crossed to join the rest of the group in the kitchen. "Is this about that long story Detective Beckett mentioned," asked Blair, "or the animals you guys have said you can see that we can't?"

That threw Ryan and Esposito for a loop. "Really?" Ryan exclaimed, "You guys can't see them? Wow...I figured you guys saw them all the time and were just used to it."

Blair and Jim shook their heads. "I've only seen it in a couple of life-or-death situations, and Blair's seen them both in dreams sometimes, but that's it."

Ryan decided to take advantage of the opportunity to open the discussion. He asked Ellison and Sandburg, "Mind if I try something, guys?" When the two men gave their consent, Ryan connected with their minds to give them the opportunity to see what he was seeing.

Sandburg looked to the group, confused. "Okay, what are you going to try, Detective Ryan?"

"I think he's already trying it, chief."

That made Blair even more confused. "What is it, Jim?"

"I can't explain it, but it just feels...odd," Ellison replied. "Like there's a tin can telephone connection between my head and his. And the weirdest thing is, now I hear...purring...by the front door..."

Blair and Jim turned around to look at the front door to the loft, and both men gasped in surprise. "Blair? Detective Ellison?" asked Alexis, "What do you see now?"

"Our spirit animals: Jim's panther and my wolf," replied Blair, "and the two tigers from my dream-"

"Wait a second, *your* dream?" asked Esposito. "You saw *our* tigers in *your* dream?"

Blair nodded. "You, too." As Blair described his dream, it became Esposito's turn to gasp in surprise. "Mr. Sandburg, I had that exact same dream. Part of the reason we're talking to you tonight because, after I had that dream, we saw your wolf and Detective Ellison's panther at the crime scene."

"And see them every time we see you two," added Ryan.

Ryan cut the connection between the three men, and out of the corner of his eye, Jim noticed that the animals had vanished. "Wait, now they're gone."

"They're not gone," Ryan told them. "You just can't see them anymore."

Alexis, for her part, noticed the obvious strain that was just starting to ease off Ryan's face. "Kevin? You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks, Alexis," replied Ryan. "That was the first time I tried two at a time. I guess it took a little more out of me than I thought."

It seemed like every connection Blair's mind pieced together sent another shock through his system. His voice squeaked out in the barest whisper, "I thought I'd just found another Sentinel...but my God...Guardians? Th-That's impossible..."

Beckett heard the panic in Sandburg's voice and tried to get him to talk about something he knew. "What's a sentinel?"

"Someone whose senses work at levels normal people would consider superhuman," replied Blair. "Jim's one, and I thought you were, too, Detective Beckett."

"That sounds like me," insisted Beckett, confused, "So what's the difference?"

Blair started to calm down a bit as Beckett kept him talking. "A Sentinel in primitive cultures was usually paired with a guide: someone who could help him master the use of his senses and pull him out of a zone out if he needed it -"

"Zone out?" asked Beckett.

"When a sentinel focuses too intently on something with one of his senses, he can get lost in it. He goes into a kind of trance state that only his guide can pull him out of. So when I saw you, and you had no guide, and with everything else I've seen today..." His heart went racing again as the truth of the situation come back to the forefront of his mind.

Jim was starting to feel concerned for his guide. _Blair looks like his world's collapsing on him. _"Sandburg? Blair? Talk to me, chief."

Blair took a minute to rub his face, trying to calm his racing heart. An overwhelming feeling of peace and calm started to surround him, and he grabbed on to it, relaxing into it even as he realized in awe that it just confirmed his theory further. Sandburg turned to his partner to begin the explanation. "When I was working on my master's thesis, this legend kept coming up of the Guardians of Shangri-La." Laughing, he added, "I used to make jokes that they were the anthropologist's version of the Avengers..." The shock quickly re-settled into his voice, "My God..."

"And you think we might fit this guardians legend?" asked Beckett.

Blair nodded, a little weakly. "Everything I've seen so far fits. The hunter, healer, warrior priest and prophet..." Blair started laughing again as he added, "if you've got a wizard around here somewhere you'd be 5 for 5..." Blair looked around, expecting everyone to laugh at the nonsensical statement. So it was a *complete* shock that Jim seemed to be the only one left capable of looking him in the eye. Richard Castle, in particular, seemed to be shifting around as if he wanted to look anywhere *but* in Blair's eyes...

The anthropologist was sure his jaw must be dragging three feet behind him on the floor by now. "No way..." he gasped, "*You're* the Sìfāng?"

Castle's eyes widened slightly in recognition of the name. "That's what Lóng zhǔ kept calling me..."

"*You* fought the Dragon Master? Wow..." The flow of constant information shocks was starting to make Blair a little lightheaded. He pushed his way over to the couch, admitting as he went, "I really need to sit down..."

Castle followed the younger man quickly, hanging on to the last thing Blair had told him like a lifeline. "Wait a minute, you know who that guy was?"

Blair was starting to get his strength back as his mind started to accept the new reality of yet another legend come to life. He nodded, answering Castle by telling Ellison, "I probably know as much about the Guardians as I do about Sentinels, Jim. I just never thought it would be information I'd have to actually *use*..."

"But you can help us?" asked Castle excitedly.

Blair looked up at the wizard, confused. "Why do you guys need help?"

"*That's* the long story I mentioned earlier," replied Beckett. The group surrounded Blair on the couch, telling him the story of how they got their powers and the battle with Lóng zhǔ.

Jim listened to their story intently, remembering how afraid and alone he felt before finding his partner. How close he came to losing his mind. How often Blair had pulled him away from coming even close to losing himself in a zone out. And while this group were incredibly lucky to have each other to help them through this, it was clear to Ellison that they were still, to a degree, flying blind. _But if Blair could help them..._

As Castle wrapped up the story, he asked Blair and Jim, "So, Detective Ellison, Mr. Sandburg - Will you help us?"

Jim looked to gauge what his partner was thinking, and it didn't take Ryan's telepathic ability to see how desperately Blair wanted to jump right in and get involved. In his heart, Jim knew, he couldn't say no to them either.

Blair's heart soared as he watched his sentinel nod in agreement. Turning back to the group, he told them, "Okay, first things first. It's Jim and Blair or Ellison and Sandburg at the station, okay? If we're going to be working together this formal stuff is going to get old *quick*."

"As long as you do the same for us," replied Ryan. "What else?"

"We can do this one of two ways: One-either we go someplace and I come up with a whole bunch of tests."

It wasn't terribly hard to tell what Jim thought of that idea. "What's option two?" asked Castle.

Jim replied, "Two is that you guys talk us on to Mark Schoenweiss' murder. I came to New York for the ATTF conference..."

The group all winced - they had all heard stories about how unbelievably dull the ATTF guys could be. "My condolences, bro," commented Esposito.

"Yeah, tell me about it," remarked Jim, "Anyway, I know I can get it cleared with my captain back in Cascade, as long as you guys can get it cleared with your captain?"

Alexis and Ryan shared a smile that clearly implied that they were up to something. "Leave it to me," Ryan replied.


	5. Chapter 5

Ryan stopped at the door to Captain Victoria Gates' office. He smiled as he remembered his last practice session with Alexis...

* * *

"Okay," Alexis began, "up to this point you've been using your power as a secondary form of communication: listening to other people's thoughts and projecting your thoughts into their heads. Occasionally you've tried working to project what you're seeing. But when we were talking to my dad about not being able to influence free will, it hit me: *you* might be able to pull it off."

"How so?" Ryan asked, curious.

"When you have a memory of someone else, do you remember them with your voice or theirs?"

Ryan was starting to see where this was going. "Theirs..."

"And have you ever been able to picture someone telling you exactly what you wanted to hear from them, whatever it was, so clearly it felt like you were remembering what they actually said?"

Ryan caught on immediately. "Yeah..."

"If you projected *that picture* into their head-"

Ryan completed his friend's thought. "They might think it's their own thoughts."

"It's probably going to be tricky, the picture has to be clear and convincing enough to be..." Alexis' instruction trailed off in a series of monkey calls. Crouching low to the ground, she started to scratch under her arms and move around the room from that bent position...until Ryan couldn't take it anymore and cut off the connection as he doubled over with laughter.

Alexis slowly realized where she was, what she had been doing...and who had planted the thought in her mind to do it. "Okay," she declared, trying to salvage some shred of dignity, "apparently that wasn't nearly as tricky as I thought it would be..."

* * *

His mind returning to focus on the present, Ryan went through his mental prep checklist: _Deep breath, focus, turn on the charm, keep open to her thoughts..._

Ryan opened the door to find Captain Gates sitting at her desk doing paperwork. Without looking up, she asked, "Detective Ryan, what can I do for you today?"

"You know that new case from NYU, Mark Schoenweiss?" As Gates curtly nodded, Ryan continued, "We believe his death may be linked to something he was working on with a colleague, Blair Sandburg."

"The one who found the body? Have we ruled him out as a suspect?"

Ryan nodded. "He was having dinner with Alexis Castle during the entire time of death window. Mr. Sandburg works as a consultant with his home PD in Cascade, Washington, and has offered to help us with the investigation. I'd like to use him."

_Another consultant? _thought Gates wearily, _Who's going to babysit this one?_

Using his 'advantage', Ryan quickly added, "Mr. Sandburg is in town with his partner, a Detective Jim Ellison of Cascade's Major Crimes division. Detective Ellison is in town for the ATTF conference, but has generously volunteered to work this investigation with his partner."

_I'm sure, _thought Gates, _I'm just glad I didn't have to punish one of my people by sending them to that conference._ "Do you have the number of his CO?"

"Right here," Ryan replied as he handed Gates the slip of paper Jim had given him earlier. She took the slip of paper back with her to her desk and dialed the number.

* * *

In Cascade, Captain Simon Banks was just settling in for the start of his very long day. Not for the first time, he wished that his best team were in his bullpen instead of halfway across the country. _It's not because they're much of a help with the paperwork, mind you - but at least with the two of them around, the days are never boring..._

When the phone rang with an unfamiliar New York City number, Simon had to deliberately swallow the lump that had mysteriously appeared in the middle of his throat. Had his most troublesome team finally gone that fatal step too far? He picked up the phone and answered, "Banks,"

"Captain Banks?" said the authoritative female voice on the other end of the line, "This is Captain Victoria Gates with the NYPD 12th precinct homicide division. I'm calling about a Detective Jim Ellison and a Mr. Blair Sandburg."

Simon had to fight down another lump in his throat and a new knot in his stomach. "Yes?"

"A friend of Mr. Sandburg's was found dead yesterday. Mr. Sandburg believes that the death is connected to the field of study that he shared with the deceased, and he and Detective Ellison have offered to assist in the investigation."

_Thank God,_ thought Simon with relief. _Of course, only these two could fly all the way across the country and find themselves involved in a Sentinel case..._ "They're my best team by far, Captain Gates. Probably the best team in this city. If you let them work this case I can promise you won't regret it."

"So you have no problem with Detective Ellison missing the ATTF conference?"

"No problem at all. I'll go to my commissioner and smooth out the details on this end. Oh, and Captain Gates?"

"Yes, Captain Banks?"

"Would you pass them a message for me?"

"Sure."

"Please inform my best team that if I get a call from a New York City *hospital* I will personally fly to New York and beat them both senseless."

Simon heard a small chuckle on the other end of the line. "I'll do that. Have a good day, Captain Banks."

"You too, Captain Gates. Goodbye." Simon hung up the phone and prayed he wouldn't have to make good on his promise.

* * *

Gates hung up the phone, a small smile on her face. She had a feeling she would like the other captain a lot, should they ever have a chance to meet. _So if this is his best team..._ Gates turned her attention back to Detective Ryan. "I'd like to meet these two before I make my decision." Ryan nodded and followed her out to the bullpen. She tried to size up the two men by the elevator, and found herself unable to make heads or tails of the odd couple before her. _*This* is the best team in Cascade? They definitely do things differently in Washington..._

Ryan had to stifle a laugh. He thought to himself, _Captain, you have *no* idea..._

Ellison and Sandburg approached the Captain, Ellison taking the lead immediately. "Captain Gates? Detective Jim Ellison."

Gates shook Ellison's offered hand. "Nice to meet you, detective. Mr. Sandburg. Detective Ryan told me you believe Mr, Schoenweiss' death is tied to your work?"

Sandburg handled the agreed-upon obfuscation with practiced ease. "Yes, ma'am. Mark did some work for me on a case I worked with Detective Ellison. I believe that his death might be connected to that case."

"I see," Gates remarked. "Well, I've spoken to your CO and he speaks extremely highly of you. So, you have my approval to work on this case. Welcome to the 12th, detective, Mr. Sandburg. But, just so we're clear, Captain Banks did ask me to pass a message."

"Ma'am?" asked Ellison.

"He said, and I quote, 'Please inform my best team that if I get a call from a New York City *hospital* I will personally fly to New York and beat them both senseless.' I'll just add one other thing to that." She moved in close and looked up to make sure the man in front of her knew that she meant business. "If you put any of my people in danger then your captain will have to get in line behind me. Am I clear, detective?"

"Yes ma'am," Ellison replied as Gates turned on her heel and walked back to her office. In his head, Ellison thought, _Ryan, I thought you said that you could make sure that she was going to be nice?_

Ryan shrugged in response. _Jim, for her, that *was* nice._

Having heard the whole conversation, Beckett watched with a smirk as Ryan crossed the bullpen with Jim and Blair. "So, that went well..."

* * *

**Hey all! I did promise that I would *teach* Ryan the Jedi mind trick...I never said he would actually *use* it! Hehehe... Plus, it kind of felt, well, unfair to use it on Gates. Not that she's even remotely a favorite character of mine (I hate her on the show, quite honestly), but I do think that with some good writing she might even become, dare I say it, likeable. I would, however, love your opinions on the subject. I'm trying to figure out where Gates fits in to the Four Winds universe. Should she find out about everyone's powers? Be kept in the dark and become Jedi mind trick practice for Ryan? Or should I go with my current favorite idea...let's just say it involves guys with really, really sharp teeth...two of them to be exact. ;-) Please review!**


	6. Chapter 6

_I hate this part of the job, _Beckett thought sadly. Maybe it had to do with her own unresolved issues with her mother's murder; maybe it was just too hard seeing all that grief day after day. Either way, Beckett steeled herself for what needed to be done as she led the grieving widow to a table in the break room and sat down next to Jim.

"We're sorry for your loss, Ms. Schoenweiss," said Jim in a gentle, consoling tone.

Tiffany Schoenweiss sniffled and dabbed her eyes with a tissue from the box between herself and the detectives. "Thank you," she replied wistfully, "I have to keep reminding myself that he's never coming home..."

Beckett asked, "How long were you married?"

Tiffany tucked strands of her long brown hair behind her ear as she replied, "Six months." She sniffled again and sipped her coffee.

"Can you think of anyone who might want to hurt your husband, Ms. Schoenweiss?" asked Jim.

It was the briefest of moments, but Beckett was *sure* that she had heard a tiny catch in Tiffany's breath and skip of her heartbeat. She filed the information away as Tiffany replied, "Absolutely not. He was the shyest, gentlest man I've ever met. I guess you could say he was a geek. It took him nearly a month to get up the courage to even ask me out..."

Sensing the need to change the subject, Beckett asked, "What about your husband's work? Was he working on anything that someone might consider...dangerous?"

Tiffany looked at Beckett like she had three heads. Bitterly, Tiffany spat out, "You've got to be kidding? His work? Dangerous? The only way his work could be considered dangerous is if you worried about someone dying from laughter."

Knowing Mark Schoenweiss' field of study, Jim was tempted to get offended. "So your husband had trouble getting his work taken seriously?"

"That's putting it mildly," replied Tiffany. "He was the laughingstock of the school. If a med student or even a pre-med student wanted to study something like this no one would bat an eye. But an anthropologist? On good days, all he got were people calling him Professor X."

"And on the bad days?" asked Beckett.

"There was a petition going around the school that demanded he be fired for being a waste of financial resources."

"Do you think anyone might have been jealous of his position within the college?" asked Beckett.

"It's possible...I don't know."

It seemed to the two cops like they weren't going to get any more information out of Tiffany in this meeting, so Beckett thanked her for her time and cooperation, then Jim walked her out. It wasn't long after Jim's return to the break room that the post-interrogation discussion began. "So what do you make of the grieving widow?" asked Jim.

"Not sure yet..." replied Beckett. Leaning in to make their conversation a little more private, she then admitted, "When you asked her if she knew anyone who would have wanted to hurt her husband, I could have sworn I heard her heart skip a beat-"

Jim nodded in confirmation, "and that change in her breathing?" When Beckett agreed, Jim explained with a smile, "One of the many benefits of hyperactive senses-human polygraph."

"So she was lying?" asked Beckett.

Jim agreed, "I'm pretty sure of it."

"Then the next question is, did she do it," asked Beckett, "or does she simply know who did it?"

"She might just have strong suspicions," countered Jim. "Clearly she had no love lost for her husband's co-workers."

"Only one way to find out," declared Beckett. "We get over to the college and see what Ryan and Esposito have found out."

* * *

"So how does this work, exactly?" asked Blair as they stepped off the elevator into the basement hovel/offices of the NYU teaching assistants.

Ryan teased him, "We go around and ask the other anthropology TAs about their relationship with our vic, get a feel for what people thought of him..."

Blair rolled his eyes, mildly annoyed. "That's not what I mean and you know it."

His tone turning more serious, Ryan described, "I get more information than I could ever use if I don't keep my guard up. And that's just from one person. The more people I'm around, the harder it gets."

"Jim's senses can be like that, too," said Blair. "Is it hard to keep all those minds at bay?"

"Sometimes," Ryan admitted. "It's hardest when I'm tired."

Blair nodded in sympathy. "And it's not like you could just use a white noise generator to tune out all those thoughts. But most of the time, you can focus on just one person's thoughts?" Ryan nodded, and Blair turned to his partner. "What about you, Esposito?"

"When I shake somebody's hand, sometimes I get...flashes," shrugged Esposito. "It's kind of hard to describe. I see a scene either from the person's past or future. Usually I can get a scene from the past if I need to see the answer to a question, but it's mostly pretty random."

"Really?" asked Blair, surprised. "Have you ever tried to get more information than that? The legend said the warrior prophet could see any point on the timeline of a person's life at his command."

Esposito shrugged, "Never really thought about it. Mostly I've just tried to work with the information I got."

"And have the visions ever been wrong?"

Esposito shook his head. "Points in the past have never been wrong. The future...well, I can't really tell if the future ones have been right or wrong, because any change we make *because* of what I see changes the path...right?"

Blair couldn't help but smile. "Now you're starting to think like a prophet." He then stood back as Esposito knocked on the door of the first teaching assistant.

A blond-haired graduate student opened the door. While she was someone who might have been considered pretty if she took care of herself, the purely practical strong-prescription glasses and severe bun in her hair made it clear to the world that she had other things on her mind besides her appearance. "Yes?" she greeted them coolly, clearly annoyed at the disturbance.

"Ms. Dyson?" asked Ryan. As she nodded, Ryan mentally checked her off the 'short list' of anthropology TAs that the department had given them and turned on the charm, hoping that his aura of piece would negate what felt like this woman's innate tendency toward standoffishness. "Detectives Ryan and Esposito, NYPD. This is Mr. Sandburg. We'd like to ask you a couple of questions about Mark Schoenweiss?"

It seemed to have worked, as Jennifer Dyson relaxed immediately under the influence of Ryan's aura and let the three men in. Taking her seat behind the desk, the two detectives settled into the chairs in front of their subject while Blair tried to make himself comfortable leaning against the wall behind them.

"Ms. Dyson," Esposito began, "did you know Mr. Schoenweiss?"

_It doesn't sound like they know, _thought Jennifer, _for now, assume they don't. _"Not very well, Detective. I would see him at department functions, things like that. He was very shy. I don't think I remember seeing him talk to anybody at one of those things-ever."

Ryan made note of the duplicity between Jennifer's thoughts and actions as he asked, "What about the other TAs in the department? Did people talk about him?"

"No," she lied, _they laughed about him, joked about his work, mocked him like he was the elephant man, but talked? Hardly. _"He was just...there. In the background. He went about his work quietly and did whatever Professor Newmark told him to do."

Esposito asked,"Are you familiar with his work?"

"Not really," she replied, "just that it had to do with ancient tribal something-or-others."

Ryan knew that they weren't going to get anything concrete out of Jennifer without doing something that could raise suspicions, so he motioned for the group to get up to leave. Shaking her hand, Ryan said politely, "Well, thank you for your time, Ms. Dyson."

Jennifer politely shook Ryan's offered hand and moved on to Esposito's. She gasped a little when taking Esposito's hand to shake...like they had transmitted a static charge between them even though there was nothing in the tiny room that could generate such electricity. Shaking off the sensation, Jennifer showed the three men to the door.

Esposito fought for every breath as the door closed, trying to make sense of the flood of information that threatened to overwhelm him. Ryan recognized his friend's distress immediately. "Javi? What is it?"

"I tried to do what you said," replied Esposito to Blair, "about getting more information than just the one scene."

Blair asked, "So how much did you get?"

"All of it, I think," replied Esposito, his voice as unsteady as his appearance. "Everything in Ms. Dyson's life from birth until now." The detective winced as Ms. Dyson's awkward first sexual experience rose unbidden to the front of his mind. "And believe me, I mean *everything*. Hell of a lot to process in under a second."

"Did you see anything that will help us with this case?" asked Ryan.

Esposito nodded. "I'm sure you figured out she was lying to us the whole time?" As Ryan nodded, Esposito continued, "She dated Schoenweiss for a long time. I'm having trouble figuring out timeframes for everything, but my guess would be at least four or five years. They broke it off when Schoenweiss told her he was getting married, but they started up again three months ago."

"They were having an affair?" When Esposito affirmed Ryan's statement with a quick nod, he continued, "Does the wife know?"

Esposito shook his head as his body seemed to approach a state closer to something resembling 'normal'. "As far as I can tell, the two women have never met. But if the widow knows about Ms. Dyson, Ms. Dyson somehow found a way to hide that piece of information from me."


	7. Chapter 7

"The thing about having hyper senses is that you're not just a human polygraph, Beckett. You're also a forensics lab, surveillance equipment, medical examiner's office...basically, you can be your own precinct all rolled into one."

Beckett could feel the headache just starting to form behind her eyeballs and wished, fruitlessly, that Lanie could be there to cure it. "That's part of what you do for Ellison as his guide, isn't it? Research assistant?"

"Nah, that's more a PhD thing. Most of what I do for Jim is paperwork."

"Wow...can I keep your guide for a while, Ellison? I'll give you Castle in trade..."

"Oh, Detective Beckett, you do not know what you are asking..." Jim laughed as he knocked on the door and stepped back, allowing Beckett access to the doorway as it opened. "Professor Newmark?" she asked.

David Newmark pushed his wire-rimmed glasses up his nose, looking every inch the distinguished professor of academia. "Yes?"

"Detective Kate Beckett, NYPD. This is Detective Ellison, Blair Sandburg." Beckett opened her badge to reinforce her identity as she continued, "We'd like to ask you some questions about Mark Schoenweiss."

Newmark opened the door to let the trio in. "Of course, please. Mark's death was a great loss to the department. I'll be happy to help in any way that I can."

"Thank you," said Beckett. She sat down beside Jim while Blair once again tried to make himself comfortable leaning against the back wall.

"So...how may I be of assistance to the NYPD?" asked Newmark.

Jim resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Newmark's smug attitude. _Unless I miss my guess, _he thought, _he's raised his chair up to make sure he's looking down at anyone sitting across from him. _Ellison pulled out his notebook and pen. "Mr. Schoenweiss was your teaching assistant, is that correct?"

Newmark nodded. "He was a passionate and promising young anthropologist. Mark was also rare in that he loved teaching just as much as he loved his research. My undergraduate students loved him."

"Really?" Beckett raised an eyebrow in surprise. "I was under the impression he wasn't terribly well respected."

Beckett noticed the faintest telltale hitch in Newmark's breathing and heartbeat before the professor answered the question. "Yes, well his peers were simply jealous of his brilliant mind. Mark was poised to make giant leaps in the field...well, before he was taken from us so tragically."

Newmark's heart started to race just slightly with that last statement...a fact that was not lost on either Beckett or Ellison. _Now to take advantage, _thought Beckett. "What giant leap would that be, professor?"

"Yes, well, um, that was what he had told me several times over the past couple of weeks. But what he was working on, alas, he had yet to tell me." Newmark was scrambling to cover his own statements, and if his racing heart and the involuntary gasp let out from Sandburg were any indication, Beckett was certain he was doing an absolutely terrible job of it.

Even without hyperactive senses, Blair knew Newmark was lying through his teeth. "I find it hard to believe that you had no idea what Mark was working on, Professor," Blair insisted, "especially if you had any reason to believe his work was going to be as groundbreaking as you claim."

Newmark made a grand show of letting out a large sigh, as if he were going to finally confess everything he knew. The professor then admitted, "All right, all right, if you must...I did hear through the department 'rumor mill' that he was working on something with a teaching assistant in the chemistry department, although I didn't catch the name."

It was clear from Newmark's slowing heart rate that he had told them everything he was going to tell them in this interview. With their choices dwindling down to either confronting him on the lies she strongly suspected he was telling or ending the interview, Beckett chose to end the interview by standing up. Shaking the professor's hand, she told him, "Well, thank you for you time, Professor. If we have any questions, we'll be in touch."

Newmark had them pushed out the door at a speed that Sandburg would have found annoying, had it not been for the rest of the interview. He was about to start venting about the utter pomposity of the professor when he noticed the expression on both Beckett's and Jim's faces and stopped himself immediately. Blair watched his Sentinel for any signs of a zone out as the two detectives listened to the phone conversation going on in the next room...

* * *

"Justin? It's Professor Newmark."

"Professor? Is everything all right? You don't sound so great..."

Newmark sighed loudly. "Of course I'm not all right. I was just visited by three members of the NYPD! I thought you *said* that no one would suspect Mr. Schoenweiss' death as anything other than natural causes?"

"It shouldn't h-have, sir. The combination of chemicals we used sh-should h-have masked it from uh-any-"

"I don't give a rat's ass about your should haves, Justin!"

"B-but they don't know about our connection yet, sir..."

"See to it that they don't find out." *click*

* * *

Beckett was looking for the phone the minute Professor Newmark disconnected from his own. "Blair, call our contact at the registrar's office, see if he knows a chemistry TA first name Justin." She found the phone and looked up a very familiar number. "Lanie, please tell me you have something..."

Ellison shared a simultaneous chuckle with Beckett as she hung up the phone. Blair was starting to feel left out of the joke. "Uh...guys?"

"Sorry, chief," replied Jim. "Lanie just said that she wished her tests were as fast and accurate as a Sentinel, but for now, she's got nothing."

"Well, the registrar's office *was* able to come up with something. There's only one TA in the chemistry department named Justin. And I just got Mr. McIlroy's address."

* * *

Castle met everyone outside the apartment building where Justin McIlroy was reported to live. "So this is the place?"

Beckett nodded. "Okay, Castle, you, Jim and Blair cover the alley. We'll head upstairs."

Jim and Blair looked to each other, confused. "That's the plan?" asked Blair.

"Blair, keep an eye on Castle," Beckett replied, ignoring Blair's hesitation. "If anything happens to him we could have some real problems. Jim, keep an eye on the alley-track him if he gets away from us."

Ellison nodded. He pulled out his weapon to make sure it would be ready if he needed it...but Castle stopped him mid-check with a hand on his wrist. Jim looked up to see Castle looking at him with an expression of confidence and power the sentinel found oddly disquieting. "You won't be needing that," Castle declared.

Jim felt a tingle on his skin and noticed the faintest hum at the edges of his hearing. Looking around, he realized that everyone in the group was covered from head to toe in thin blue threads of light. Beckett couldn't help but smile as she recognized his expression. "You'll get used to it," commented Beckett, "And the benefits definitely outweigh the 'buzz'."

"Benefits? What is this, Beckett?" asked Ellison.

"Castle's specialty," replied Beckett with a smile. "It's our own version of head-to-toe Kevlar."

His breathing starting to labor just slightly, Castle added, "but adding two new shields is definitely giving me a 'workout' so it might be good if you guys stopped talking and got this guy." Beckett nodded, and started to leave when Castle remembered one last thing. "Oh, and Kate-be careful."

Beckett smile was warm and spoke of all the love she had for her boyfriend. "Always," she replied, then turned to lead Ryan and Esposito up to the top floor of the 10 story building.

Blair was surprised at how hard Castle seemed to be pushing himself, and Castle couldn't help but notice Sandburg's expression. "Manipulating energy...seems to be hardest for me." Castle explained. "It's the one thing I've tried to far that actually takes the most of my own energy to accomplish. But...it seems to be like working out-the more I do it, the more I can handle."

Sandburg opened his mouth to start asking more questions, but his sentinel's hand on his arm stopped him. "Jim? What is it?" asked Blair.

"It's McIlroy," announced Jim, "he's headed down the fire escape..." Jim headed down the alley before Castle could stop them, with Blair hot on his heels. He finally caught up to them as Jim pointed his weapon as Justin McIlroy as he slid down the last rungs of the escape ladder. "POLICE! FREEZE!"

McIlroy pointed his own weapon at Jim, forcing them into a standoff. Castle was desperate to diffuse the tense situation. "Jim," Castle instructed Ellison at a voice just above the barest whisper, "Put your weapon away. He's not going anywhere."

Jim finally expanded his peripheral vision...and noticed the 30-foot walls that 'mysteriously' appeared at both ends of the alley, cutting off any potential for their suspect to escape. "You're protected, he's not, remember?" continued Castle, "and you don't want to know the mountain of paperwork Beckett will get buried under if you shoot someone..."

Ryan, Esposito and Beckett jumped from the fifth floor to the street level as Jim relented, holstering his weapon. McIlroy reacted in a panic, grabbing Ryan and pointing the gun to his head. "Okay," McIlroy demanded, "I don't want to hurt anybody..."

That was all Ryan needed to hear. He turned on the charm and focused all of his attention on McIlroy. _I don't want to hurt anybody..._

McIlroy repeated his statement, the nervous edge starting to come off his voice. "I don't want to hurt anybody..."

_So I think I'll put the gun down..._

"So I think I'll put the gun down..." McIlroy's weapon fell harmlessly to the ground.

_And let this nice officer go..._

"And let this nice officer go..." McIlroy released his hold on Ryan.

_I'll just put my hands behind my back..._

"I'll just put my hands behind my back..." McIlroy complied immediately.

_And wait for Detective Beckett to put the handcuffs on..._

"And wait for Detective Beckett to put the handcuffs on." McIlroy froze in place, waiting for Beckett until her surprise had shifted to the realization that their suspect had identified her by name.

Ryan severed the connection with McIlroy as soon as the suspect was properly handcuffed. It didn't take long for the man to realize his hands were no longer capable of movement. "Wh-what happened? Where are you taking me?"

"Back to the precinct," Beckett replied, "We want to talk to you about the murder of Mark Schoenweiss."

"H-how? We're all trapped in here? Those walls-"

Beckett had to resist the urge to smile, instead playing it as innocently as she could. "What walls, Mr. McIlroy?"

McIlroy scanned the area around him only to discover that the walls he had thought blocked his escape were, in fact, not even there. "C'mon," Beckett sighed in sympathy, "Maybe after we have that talk you can go get your eyes checked..."


	8. Chapter 8

"And the full report is in the computer? Thanks, Lanie." Beckett hung up the phone and focused her attention to the group surrounding her desk. By the clenched set of his jaw, Beckett knew that Jim had been listening in to the conversation. Still, she repeated the information for the rest of the group, "Okay, Lanie just finished filing her report. The official cause of death is going to be intentional poisoning - a homicide."

"So what isn't she putting in the report?" asked Castle.

Beckett turned to Sandburg with her reply. "Lanie believed that Mark suffocated from spending an extended period of time in a zone-out."

_That explains the jaw clench, _thought Blair. He knew that Beckett had just described one of Ellison's bigger nightmares. She hadn't however, answered the more important question. "But Mark wasn't a Sentinel. So how-?"

"Come take a look at this." Beckett motioned Sandburg over to stand behind her so he could get a better view of the report on the computer screen.

Blair rubbed his face, studying the report with a growing sense of disbelief. "Oh Mark," Sandburg exclaimed in the barest of whispers, "what did you do?" Out loud, he announced to the group, "Guys, the base of the cocktail of drugs in Mark's system are all drugs that are rumored to enhance the senses; however, they're also all powerful hallucinogens: meth, ecstasy, LSD. The other drugs consist of a combination of anti-hallucinogens and anti-psychotics."

"Which means what, exactly?" asked Castle.

"I think," Blair replied, still reeling, "I think Mark was trying to create a drug that would make someone, temporarily, into a Sentinel. And I think he was murdered for it."

* * *

Castle joined Beckett and Ellison in the observation room as Esposito was joining his partner in the box. He watched the two men prepare to interrogate Justin McIlroy. "So what's their plan?" asked Castle.

"Good cop, bad cop," replied Beckett, "With Ryan being the good cop."

*That* surprised Jim. "Really? Even after the guy held a gun to his head?"

"He was in no danger," Castle insisted, that unnerving confidence shining through.

"But McIlroy doesn't know that," added Beckett with a smile.

* * *

Esposito let out a small sigh as he entered the box, relaxing as the tension left his body. This was one of those rare moments where his partner's gift for calming down a room actually made his job harder. He started to wonder how he was going to be able to play the 'bad cop' with this guy.

When the memory of watching McIlroy holding a gun to his partner's head returned to the forefront of his mind, Esposito's question was answered as a powerful wave of anger pushed to the surface. _Oh yeah, _he thought, _this guy's *mine*._

Ryan watched his partner take the seat next to him. He then turned to their suspect with a smile. "Good afternoon, Mr. McIlroy. Do you know why you're here?"

"Y-you want to talk to me about some guy named M-Mark Sh-Schoenweiss," McIlroy replied.

Ryan asked, "Did you know Mark Schoenweiss?"

McIlroy shook his head. "No."

"Bull," spat out Esposito. "You know what we found in your apartment? Meth, Ecstasy and LSD. You know what *killed* Mark Schoenweiss? A mix of Meth, Ecstasy and LSD. I hope you learned more about self defense than buying a gun,*bro*, cause skinny little geeks like you don't do all that good in prison..."

McIlroy's face went white. "P-prison? Oh, God-"

Ryan cut off his panicked tirade quickly. "Justin, Justin - yes, it's that bad. But there is something you can do to help yourself."

"Wh-What?"

"Well, we know that you didn't put this plan together..." Ryan began.

Esposito cut him off with a snarl. "Yeah, he's too *stupid* for that."

Ryan shushed his partner as he continued, "So if you would be willing to testify against your boss, we could see about getting some of the charges reduced..." When Esposito jumped up to 'protest', Ryan calmly helped him back to his chair and continued, "and I'll make sure that the charges of assaulting a police officer go away."

"Y-you will? But I-I held a gun to your head!"

Ryan shrugged, "Yeah, but I know you didn't want to pull the trigger. So what do you say? We have a deal?"

McIlroy hesitated, his fear growing as he thought about things. "I c-c-can't. If he finds out I ratted him out, he'll kill me-"

Esposito pressed him quickly. "Who? Who's your boss, Justin?"

Ryan knew time was getting short and McIlroy's lawyer was going to be arriving any minute. He made a grand show of gathering up his papers and putting them back in the folder. "We can't protect you if you don't want to help yourself. I hope you and Tiny will be very happy together."

As Ryan and Esposito got up to leave, the emotional dam finally broke inside Justin McIlroy and he caved. "I want full immunity! On all charges!"

Esposito had his hand on the doorknob to leave, but Ryan stopped him, turning back to face McIlroy. "What will you give us in return, Justin?"

"My-my boss, Professor Newmark. I lied about - about Mark. Newmark had Mark and I work together to create this crazy new designer drug. B-but when we finished making the drug, Newmark took it and killed Mark. *He* killed Mark, not me. And he's going to be coming for me next, I know it."

* * *

"Uh, boss?"

_Why is it so hard to find *smart* thugs? Just once I'd like to hire somebody who could beat people up *and* spoke proper english..._Professor David Newmark took another long swallow of his scotch, finishing the glass, letting the burn of the alcohol absorb his frustrations. "What is it, Tommy?"

"I found dat guy you wan' me t'follow. Big curly brown hair, skinny, looks like he's 'bout ta jump out his own skin?"

Newmark sat up, bracing his position on the desk with his free hand. _Perhaps this venture won't end up being a lost cause after all..._"Excellent work, Tommy! Excellent!"

"What d'you want me to do wit him, boss?"

"Get your guys in the van and bring him to me at the warehouse."

"Uh...and wha 'bout da girl?"

"Girl?"

"Yeah, pretty little thing wit lotta long red hair. She look a little young fer him, but dey talkin' like she's smart'a he is..."

_Petite girl with long red hair...yes...I'm sure it must be..._His mind brought up a picture of the annoying little brat who was auditing his undergraduate classes this term. Newmark despised auditors-turning down every student who asked-but this one he was forced to take on by the dean, because her daddy was some sort of famous author and the dean thought he'd get a big donation out of the man. _But now...perhaps I can be doubly blessed through this little venture..._

"Take her, too."

* * *

Esposito hung up the phone at his desk and brought the information he had uncovered to his colleagues. "Okay guys," he announced, "I just got off the phone with my contacts in vice. They haven't heard of our good professor and if his new drug is on the market, I was the first they'd heard of it."

Beckett sighed in sympathy. "I haven't done much better. Newmark is leveraged to the hilt. He's burned through every dollar he's ever made and three times that much over the past year. But they've all been cash transactions, so they're untraceable. Besides our jumpy little witness, we've got nothing."

"So we know what killed Mark Schoenweiss, we know *who* killed Mark Schoenweiss-we just can't prove it?" asked Ryan.

"Welcome to our wonderful world of unusually acquired information," muttered Jim.

"As opposed to our usual problem of unusually acquired theories," added Beckett.

"Hey, hey, hey! I prefer to call it 'unique' and 'creative'," insisted Castle in mock protest. He then answered the phone with his usual light tone. "Castle."

But his heart sank as he listened to the electronically-altered voice on the other end of the line say one of the worst things a parent could possibly hear:

"Mr. Castle, we have your daughter."


	9. Chapter 9

Castle's face fell into the pallor and pained expression that can only come when a parent knows that their child is in danger. Ryan caught the edges of the thoughts running through Castle's mind. _...bad. Guys, help me._

Ryan focused every drop of energy he could on providing peace and comfort to his friend andEllison and Beckett focused their hearing on the other end of the line as Castle responded with a coolness that could have only come through the support of his friends. "Who are you?"

"Mr. Castle, it would be so rude of me to leave the famous mystery writer without any mystery to solve, now wouldn't it?"

"What do you want?"

"Five million dollars. In small, unmarked, untraceable bills."

"It will take time for me to put that kind of money together."

"You have forty-eight hours. I will call back in 24 to check your progress."

Castle swallowed hard, knowing the next question would be the one he most dreaded asking. "How do I know you haven't killed her already?"

"Proof of life is on its way to you now. Good day, Mr. Castle."

Castle hung up the phone and sat down in his observer's chair, visibly shaking. He looked to the only person who he knew could give him definitive hope. "Javi-"

Esposito grabbed Castle's hand without a second thought, jumping right into the worried father's future timeline as far as he could. He fell out of the vision a second later with a reassuring smile. "They'll be fine. We're going to get them back."

Even as he was fighting to regain his energy, Ryan noticed the pronoun shift. "Them?"

The words Jim Ellison had been most afraid to hear were the next words to come from Esposito. "I'm sorry Jim, but they've got Sandburg too."

"Did you see where they're being held?" asked Beckett, trying to focus everyone back to the present.

"I'm sure it's a warehouse, Beckett," Esposito replied, "but that's all I could get. Sorry."

The buzz of Castle's cell phone indicated to the group that he had just received a text. He pulled up the phone to find that a picture had been delivered - of Alexis, bound and gagged, holding that day's Daily News with a television in the background showing the time and temperature graphic for what looked to be an hour before he had received the message.

Castle passed the phone around to the group, hoping someone could get something of value out of the picture. He sighed when every member of the group shook their heads, then turned to those who had listened in on the actual conversation. "Okay, I know I have my suspicions, but does anyone else have an idea as to who might have taken them?"

"It's Newmark," replied Jim with confidence.

"You're sure?" asked Castle.

Ellison nodded. "Blair taught me a while ago how to use my hearing to filter through a voice changer. Newmark was the one who made the ransom call."

Beckett shook her head in amazement at how much she could be capable of doing if she practiced, studied - or even really thought about it. Under her breath she muttered, "...such a rookie..."

Having heard Beckett's comment, Ellison tried to reassure her. "Two years, remember?"

"Did you hear anything else?" asked Castle.

Ellison shook his head. "I was too focused on filtering to Newmark's voice."

"Well, one thing about real estate is that no matter how you pay for it, there are still records of the transaction *somewhere*," insisted Beckett. We need to check Newmark's financials against warehouse leases during the time our suspect was spending money like it was going out of style."

* * *

An hour later, Beckett was starting to think she might have to eat her words. She had completely underestimated how many warehouses there might be in the five boroughs. She sighed in frustration, throwing her pen down on the piles of paperwork in front of her. It was then that she noticed Ryan sitting back in his chair with his head tilted toward his chest, eyes closed. Beckett found this position annoying, and was not finding any reason to hesitate in pointing it out. "Ryan? Oh, Ryan...wakey wakey..."

Ryan snapped up as he heard someone in the room calling his name. "Oh, sorry there guys, I got distracted..."

"By what?" replied Beckett, "the inside of your eyelids?"

It was then that Ryan realized Beckett was misinterpreting his body position. "No, I wasn't asleep. I know it may have looked it, but, uh, I was trying something I've never tried before, so I needed to focus, and sometimes it helps to block out other input-"

Esposito cut off his partner's rambling. "What were you doing, bro?"

Ryan's eyes never left their focus on Castle as he told the group, "I was trying to contact Alexis. Most of the time you guys thought I was asleep I was 'talking' to her."

*That* was a surprise to the group. Knowing he now had their attention, Ryan started pouring out information before their questions could begin. "Castle, she's fine. Some cuts and bruises, she thinks she might have sprained her wrist when they threw her in the van. Nothing that Lanie can't handle in five seconds or less. And she's pretty sure Blair was the reason they were kidnapped, not her. After they took that proof of life picture they've pretty much left her alone. But Blair they've had working on something non-stop since they got there. With guards watching his every move. The room she's in has a small window with bars on it, so she was trying to feed me information that could help us find where they are."

"Was she able to give you anything?" asked Beckett.

"Maybe. The sun was shining directly into the window, so the window's got to be facing west. And there's water right outside the window."

Esposito went straight to his computer. "That helps narrow it down some. There's a couple of places in Long Island City that it might be. But there's also a ton of places on the west side."

"I'm inclined to think west side," added Castle. "This time of day the sun would probably be blocked by skyscrapers if you're looking from Long Island City. The sun's not that blocked if you're looking at Jersey."

"Can she hear anything?" asked Jim.

Ryan answered, "She also said she can hear kids playing...like there's a park nearby."

"*That* narrows things down a whole lot," said Esposito. After a furious round of Internet searches and cross-checking, he announced, "guys, I think I've got it. There's a bunch of warehouses on 225th and West End Ave, next door to a housing project. And one of the buildings closest to the water is owned by our infamous professor."

Castle was up and almost out of the room before Ellison stopped him. "Castle, *sit down*." Castle looked around to find a roomful of sympathetic cops who were not nearly as ready as he was to storm the warehouse.

Beckett spoke for the group. "Rick, no one here faults you for wanting to go in there guns blazing. Heck, you're fully capable of going in there and getting Alexis out of there yourself. But if you do that, then Newmark is going to walk...I think you know that."

"B-but...we can connect him to the drug we found in Schoenweiss' system-"

"Only through a very shaky and possibly unreliable witness that you guys cut a deal with and a ton of evidence you're going to have a hell of a hard time presenting to a jury." Jim laid out the issue very matter-of-factly, then with a sympathetic sigh added, "When I was first learning to use my senses on the job I got put on the stand as the star witness in a murder trial. I got crucified by the defense because I saw things at a distance normal people can't-and a killer walked because of it."

Beckett drove the point home. "Look, we *all* want to go in there and get them, Castle. But could you live with getting Alexis back if it meant that Mark's killer would go free? Would *she* be able to live with it?"

Castle let out a deep, conflicted sigh. Ellison was right; there's no way Alexis would want to be saved at the someone else's expense. And deep in his heart, he knew there was no way he could live with it, either. Castle sat down again and addressed the table, "So what do you guys suggest?"

"First, give Ryan your phone," replied Beckett. "Ryan, Esposito, this is your case. You guys need to go to Gates with all of the evidence we can *explain*: Lanie's official report, what McIlroy told you in the box, and the ransom call and text. As far as Sandburg's concerned, just say we haven't been able to contact him and Castle told us they were together, so we have to assume he got taken as well."

"Won't Gates take me off the case at that point?" asked Castle.

Beckett nodded. "In fact, I'm counting on it."


	10. Chapter 10

Alexis watched Blair get thrown in to her cell, running to help him to a seated position as the door closed. Even as he winced from abused muscles aching in protest, Blair tried to reassure *her*. "I'm okay, Alexis. Believe me, I've been worse."

Alexis was starting to wish she had Lanie's gift for healing. Her concern evident, she asked, "You sure? You don't look too great."

"You know, I'm tempted to take that personally..." said Blair. Even his weak attempt at humor got a laugh out of Alexis. He watched the last rays of sunlight streaming through their tiny window. "I just wish we had some idea of what they're doing out there-if they even know we're missing."

"Um...they know. They've been working out how to rescue us for the past couple of hours."

Blair turned to Alexis with a raised eyebrow. He *wanted* to believe her, but he found it impossible not to wonder how she could be *so* sure. "And you know this how...?"

Alexis found herself blushing. She tapped a finger to her forehead, wincing as the action shot a bolt of pain through her wrist. "I, uh, I've been 'talking' with Ryan."

"He can *do* that?" Blair stared at her wide-eyed, causing Alexis to look away, uncomfortable. "How-?"

"Apparently it's like dialing a phone number. You know how after you've dialed someone's number a few times you can dial it from memory?" As Blair nodded, Alexis continued, "Under the circumstances Ryan decided to try to 'connect' with me even though he had no idea where we are."

"Guess it worked," gasped Blair in amazement.

"Yeah," Alexis shrugged. Thinking over what she had told Ryan, Alexis then asked, "Hey, not that I don't mind the company, but what are you doing here? I thought the guy that took us wasn't letting you out of his sight?"

Blair sighed; the frustration evident on his face. Calling out to his captor, he yelled, "That was until he realized he kidnapped me to try TO DO THE IMPOSSIBLE!" Returning his focus to his companion, Blair continued, "Do you remember what I told you about zone-outs?" Alexis nodded. "These guys have created a drug to temporarily enhance the senses to Sentinel levels. Unfortunately, it comes with all the drawbacks of being a Sentinel as well."

"The drug can cause a zone-out?"

Blair nodded. "They *think* a zone-out means the drug isn't working. The problem is, it means the opposite; it means the drug is working *too* well. If Mark helped design this drug, he probably created it to work exactly like this. And that's why they killed him."

Alexis was confused. "They killed him because the drug worked?"

"Kind of. When a true Sentinel goes into a zone out, only his guide can pull him out of it. But when someone who takes this drug goes into a zone-out, because they have no guide...you can't build an addict base with a drug that's more likely to just kill you the first time you take it. So now they want *me* to figure out how to stop zone-outs from happening."

Alexis asked, "And this isn't something you can fix by adjusting the formula of a drug, is it?"

Blair shook his head. "The *only* way I've ever stopped a zone-out is talking. Although, I did snap Jim out of a zone-out once by tackling him to get him out of the way of a speeding garbage truck...Hmmm...if the way to bring Jim out of a zone-out is to activate one of the non-zoning senses...maybe if I tweaked the amount of the anti-hallucinogens..."

Alexis smacked Blair hard on the arm, snapping his attention back to the present. He noticed Alexis was looking at him with a mixture of concern and amusement. "What?"

"Seemed like you were in your own version of a zone-out, 'chief'," said Alexis with a wink. Her tone turning serious, Alexis continued, "You know, I don't know that much about guides, but from what I've seen you're a really good one."

Blair blushed furiously. "I'm just an observer. When my diss is done..."

"You're going to leave? Just like that?"

Blair didn't have an answer for that, which surprised him...but not Alexis. "Uh huh. My dad used to say the same things about Kate when he was first researching Nikki Heat. Now, I'm not saying you're falling for Jim-"

A shiver ran down Blair's spine. "Uh, most definitely not."

"But," continued Alexis, "can you *honestly* tell me your relationship with Jim is just a 'research project'?" Blair sighed, realizing how much she was right...and everything that meant for his future. "Anyway," Alexis asked, "what I've been trying to say is that when we're finally rescued and you go back to Cascade, can we still keep in touch? After all, we sidekicks gotta stick together..."

Blair's smile was warm and genuine. "You can count on it, Alexis."

* * *

"Captain?" asked Ryan.

Gates looked up from what she was starting to believe was an infinitely regenerating pile of paperwork to find Ryan and Esposito at her door. "Yes, gentlemen?"

"We wanted to give you an update on the Schoenweiss case," announced Esposito.

Gates motioned for the two men to enter her office. "What can you tell me, gentlemen?"

"The ME's report lists poisoning as the cause of death, ma'am. We believe the killer broke into our vic's office, held him down in his office chair, and poured a cocktail of drugs down his throat using a funnel and some surgical tubing," Esposito explained.

Gates asked, "And what was in this cocktail?"

"A mixture of meth, ecstasy, LSD, and prescription anti-psychotics and anti-hallucinogens," replied Ryan.

Gates' eyes widened as she listened to the powerful mix of drugs Ryan listed. "And this cocktail is what brought our friends from Cascade in on this case?"

Esposito nodded. "This combination is rumored to match a new designer drug that's been giving them fits in Cascade. Mr. Sandburg recognized the drug's signature when he discovered the body."

"Mr. Sandburg is an expert on this particular drug?" When Ryan and Esposito nodded in reply, Gates continued, "I should probably speak to him, find out if we need to warn vice about this. Where is he?"

Ryan and Esposito looked to each other, then turned back to Gates. "Uh...we were just getting to that, ma'am," replied Ryan. "We have a witness who has testified that the designer of the drug is a Professor David Newmark at NYU. The witness has also testified that Professor Newmark was instrumental in orchestrating the murder of Mark Schoenweiss."

"I'm starting to get a sinking feeling about where this is going," groaned Gates. "What does this have to do with Mr. Sandburg?"

Esposito handed Gates Castle's phone with the proof of life image cued up on it. "We believe that Professor Newmark has kidnapped Blair Sandburg...along with Castle's daughter Alexis. He received a ransom call from Newmark a few moments ago."

"What did Newmark ask for?" asked Gates, stunned briefly by the news.

"Five million dollars," replied Ryan. "He's given Castle 48 hours to get it."

"Which gives us that long to find her," commented Gates, trying to process the information in her own mind. "Did your...witness give you any leads as to where Newmark might be holding them?"

Esposito replied, "There's a warehouse complex on 225th and West End Ave, and one of the buildings is being leased by an alias who's mailing address matches Newmark's. We believe they're being held there."

Gates stood up with grim resolve. "Very well," she declared, "grab Beckett and Ellison and head up there. I'll coordinate with SWAT and meet you as soon as I can."

"You're okay with Ellison on this?" asked Esposito.

"Between his military service record and exemplary police career record, I'd be a fool not to ask him to help us...However," Ryan and Esposito cringed as Captain Gates continued, "I am going to coordinate with SWAT and run this operation. And Castle is not allowed anywhere near that warehouse, am I clear?" As the two detectives made matching gestures of 'protest', Gates insisted, "The last thing we need to be forced to have to deal with on this operation is the worried father of one of the victims, am I clear?"

Ryan and Esposito replied in unison, "Crystal clear, ma'am."


	11. Chapter 11

Beckett pulled up around the corner from the warehouse. "You remember the plan, right?" she asked Castle.

"Blink into the cell where they're holding Blair and Alexis, and protect them until the police get there, then blink out before they see me. No problem."

Beckett warned him with a quick kiss. "Just remember you don't know what you're getting into over there. Be careful."

"Always," Castle replied, then disappeared.

* * *

Beckett got out of her car, fastening her bulletproof vest as she approached the site where Captain Gates was directing the troops around a set of building blueprints. When she noticed Beckett approaching, Gates asked her, "I thought I told your people that Castle was not to come within fifty feet of this operation, detective?"

"I haven't seen him since I left the precinct," lied Beckett smoothly, turning to the rest of her team. "Have you guys?" Ryan, Esposito and Ellison all shook their heads.

Confused, Gates tilted her head to get a better view of the inside of Beckett's car. _But I saw him, I'm sure-_the thought stopped in its tracks when she realized that the inside of Beckett's car was, indeed, empty. Recovering quickly, she turned back to the group, ignoring her mistake entirely. "All right then, Detective Beckett, you and Detective Esposito will take Alpha team and storm the front of the building. Detective Ryan, you and Detective Ellison will take Beta team and go around the northern set of buildings and enter through the barge loading docks. Now since we only have the general idea that Ms. Castle and Mr. Sandburg are being held in a cell on the river side of the building, is everyone familiar with the descriptions of our two victims?" The group nodded, so Gates asked them, "Any questions?" As everyone around her shook their heads, Gates concluded the meeting, "Very well, then. Good luck, everyone."

Beckett turned to her men as the teams mobilized, speaking and thinking her words carefully so her own team could hear her without speaking too loudly. "Okay, the priority is for me to keep Ellison informed of Alpha team's progress so Ryan can keep Castle updated of both team's progress." _Ryan, you'll be able to do this?_

_Already tested the connection to Castle, _Ryan projected, _Won't be a problem._

"Good luck everyone. Be careful." Beckett told the group.

She heard Ellison's voice as clearly as if he were right next to her. "You too...rookie."

* * *

Alpha team approached the entrance to the warehouse complex under cover of darkness. Beckett stretched her sight as far ahead of her as she dared...

...and found at least half a dozen men with their weapons aimed directly for her head. "Take cover!" yelled Beckett at full volume. She dragged Esposito behind the security guard's booth just as the booth and surrounding area were swamped in a hail of gunfire. Those who didn't heed Beckett's warning were the first to fall, helmets and bulletproof vests the only things keeping many alive as they went down. "Ellison," asked Beckett, "we're pinned down right at the entrance. I think these guys are on the drug. Any ideas?"

* * *

Ellison had to fight the urge to sigh, hating that he was so far away from being in a physical position to help his friends. He nudged Ryan, then tapped his finger to his head. _Ryan?_

_Yeah? _replied Ryan.

Jim heard Ryan in his head and tried to shake off his flash of disbelief. He knew he didn't have time for it. _ Alpha team is pinned down at the complex entrance. She thinks the guys in front are on the drug._

_On it, _said Ryan quickly.

* * *

Alexis whispered in the dark. "Hey Blair?"

"Yeah?" Blair whispered back.

"Think they'll rescue us soon?"

A new voice entered the conversation, "Oh, I don't know, I think you'll get rescued sooner than you think."

Alexis gasped, recognizing the voice immediately. "Daddy!" She realized immediately the risk he had just taken to get to her. "Are you okay?" she whispered, "You had no idea where you were jumping into..."

"I'm fine, honey," Castle quietly reassured his daughter. "I just focused on being here to protect you, and here I am."

"So we're not leaving yet?" asked Alexis.

Castle shook his head before he realized his daughter probably wouldn't see it. "No, baby, we can't go yet. Newmark can't go down for kidnapping if you 'mysteriously' disappear and end up back at the loft. I'm just here to protect you until Beckett and the guys get here."

"I understand," whispered Alexis.

"So who's here-"

Blair was starting to ask questions of his own when Castle cut him off with a shushing sound. The wizard's mind mind focused on the detective calling him from outside the room. _Ryan, what do you need?_

_Beckett's pinned down by a bunch of guys on the Sentinel drug, _replied Ryan, _can you help them out at all?_

_One sec, _replied Castle. He turned to Blair and asked, "If I wanted to cause a zone-out, what would be the quickest way to do it?"

An idea leapt into Blair's mind immediately. "Halogen lights. They drive Jim *crazy*. Anyone on the drug will zone..."

"And anyone not on the drug will be easier to see," Castle finished Blair's thought.

* * *

Beckett smiled as she noticed the flood of light streaming in behind her-and the helicopter sound effects that only someone with super-hearing could recognize as fake. _Nice touch, Castle. _She turned to Esposito and declared, "Anyone who's stopped shooting is high and zoned out. Only shoot if they're shooting at you."

"Yeah, easy for *you* to say," he spat back at her. Esposito realized early on that Alpha team was pinned around the corner and that Beckett was the only one firing *back*. Now that the spotlights were on full blast and the thug's rifle fire had gone down, a few of the remaining members of Alpha team braved the gunfire to pull their fallen comrades out of the way, while the rest pushed for a full-on assault of the loading bay.

* * *

Beta team had their own kind of kind of challenges to deal with. Ryan stared wistfully down the rappelling line to the barge docks below. Jim watched the younger man with concern. "Don't tell me you're scared of heights, chief."

Ryan had to resist the urge to laugh. "Nah. I'm wishing I could just jump. Rappelling is so slow..."

"Two weeks and already spoiled..." Jim muttered under his breath. Ryan laughed and joined the rest of the team rappelling down to the docks. The SWAT leader kicked the door down and was met with a hail of bullets from what seemed like every direction. Jim bent around the opposite side of the doorframe and focused his hearing on the repeating click of each weapon's hammer. Piggybacking sight to each sound, he found the shooters and fired, taking out two men immediately and sending the third diving for cover.

The SWAT Commander was starting to wonder why Captain Gates had been so hell-bent on SWAT support when these guys so clearly could have handled this on their own. He held two members of his own team back for 'backup', and gestured for the other two to flank the homicide detectives for cover support. But the commander left the room clearing up to Ryan and Ellison, who were working together flawlessly.

* * *

The 'helicopters' disappeared as the last of the shooting stopped by the loading bay doors. Satisfied that the zoned out thugs were still breathing, Beckett had every one of them handcuffed with zip ties to make sure that they would be unable to flank them from behind if they did ever snap out of their zone-outs. She took the lead with Esposito on her six as they approached the loading dock door. Beckett put her hand on the door to ground herself as she stretched her hearing just beyond the door. Filtering out as many other sounds as she could, Beckett counted the number of thugs behind the door and gestured to Esposito that she believed there were six guys on the other side.

She also hoped that her shrug communicated to him that she was *not* sure of that number.

Esposito nodded, confirming that he had gotten the message. He gave Beckett a physical count of three, then kicked in the door.

Beckett took out the three shooters in the back of the warehouse with shots to the knees. Esposito took out the remaining three by the door with quick hits to the nose, knocking each man unconscious. He scanned the floor at Beckett's back while she listened for more heartbeats. "Anything?" he asked her, at a voice just barely above a whisper.

She filtered out the sounds of the six men they had already taken out...to find one more thug on the floor. Becket took off after the man, Esposito hot on her heels.

They found a boy who couldn't have been older than sixteen, curled up in a corner. He was visibly shaking, holding on to his gun like it was a security blanket. Beckett couldn't help but feel pity for the obviously terrified kid. She got down on the boy's level and pulled the weapon easily from his hand. "I'm with the NYPD, do you understand?" Beckett asked him calmly. When the boy nodded, she continued, "I'm going to have one of these other police officers take you out of here and away from the shooting, okay?" He nodded again, and one of the junior SWAT team members helped the boy get up and escorted him out of the building.

* * *

_Ellison must be part bloodhound, _thought the commander, watching as they bypassed one room after another. He had had one of his men check the first five rooms Ellison had ignored-but tired of having the word 'clear' whispered in his ear so much, the commander finally decided to trust that Ellison knew what he was doing.

Ryan and Ellison quickly developed a system: Ellison would check the room for heartbeats, then if he found them, he would signal for Ryan to watch his back, then break down the door. The room would be cleared within seconds-usually without firing a shot-and then they moved on.

They made it to the stairwell and met up with Alpha team. "Second floor clear?" asked Esposito.

"Clear," replied Ryan. "First floor?"

"Clear," replied Esposito. "Any sign of them?"

Ryan shook his head, and the group made their way up the stairwell. _Okay Castle, _he projected, _we think you guys are on the 3rd floor. First two are clear, so we're coming to you._

* * *

David Newmark was a very angry man.

He had no idea how the police had gotten wind of his little operation..._Justin_. It had to be. _That squirrelly little brat better hope he never sees me again, _thought Newmark, _because if I ever get my hands on him, it'll make what I did to Mark look merciful..._

Newmark was in a panic. He cursed the minute he decided that that nerd Sandburg needed to be sat on until he solved the drug's coma problem. When he woke up to the blindingly bright lights streaming through the windows of the lab he knew he was in trouble.

When Newmark heard the shooting on the floor below him, though, he knew his time was short and his options growing more limited by the second. _I do have one bargaining chip left, _he thought. _Two, actually._

Newmark raced through the third floor corridors as quickly as he dared until he got to the room he was looking for. _Hostages! If I can tackle one of those two, I might be able to get out of here..._he turned the key in the lock and pushed hard on the door.

It didn't budge.

He tried again.

_Th-that's impossible. It only locks from the *outside*..._

He rammed the door with his shoulder.

Nothing.

He did it again.

Still nothing.

Finally, he took out his pistol and aimed it at the lock, trying to shoot the lock out when-

"NYPD! FREEZE! DROP THE WEAPON NOW!"

Newmark dropped the weapon, stunned that the door didn't open and angry at himself for getting caught.

"UP AGAINST THE WALL, NOW! HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD!"

Esposito slapped handcuffs on the man's wrists and started to read the man his rights. "David Newmark, you are under arrest for kidnapping-"

"K-kidnapping?" exclaimed Newmark, "Of who? Did you find *anyone* in this warehouse?"

Ellison noticed that the strands of blue energy covering the door blinked out, then disappeared, and decided to take a chance. He kicked the door-and it burst open immediately.

Esposito winked at his red-haired friend through the doorway as he re-started reading Newmark his rights. "David Newmark, you are under arrest for kidnapping Alexis Castle and Blair Sandburg..."

**Okay, I haven't really begged for reviews to this point, although I'm thrilled that you guys have been doing so much to spur me on to finish this thing, especially TheButterflyCurse996 :-). But in this case, I could really use your help. When my husband read the original "Four Winds", he gave me two pieces of constructive criticism: 1) My chapters were too short, and 2) I didn't spend enough time on either the case or the big final battle. I tried to work on both things when it came to this story. I've gotten better at writing longer chapters, but I'm still not sure I'm doing a decent job writing action. Have I improved? Please click the blue button below and let me know!  
**


	12. Chapter 12

The red and yellow of ambulance and police lights bathed the warehouse complex in a sunset-like glow. Captain Victoria Gates watched as barrel after barrel of meth, ecstasy, LSD and other drugs were taken out of Professor David Newmark's warehouse and loaded into an NYPD evidence semi. It was hard not to feel pride in the fact that one of the biggest drug busts of the year was going to be credited to *her* team of homicide detectives. Gates noticed that the SWAT commander was leaving the building, and she crossed the lot to thank him for his assistance and 'grease palms'. "Commander?"

"Captain Gates! I was hoping to talk to you," replied the SWAT commander.

Gates was pleasantly surprised that the commander had been looking for *her*. "Yes, commander, what can I do for you?"

The commander quickened his pace so he could intercept Gates' path. When they were face-to-face he told her, "First of all, Captain Gates, I just have to tell you how incredibly impressed I was by your team. They were not only able to handle themselves, they took care of Newmark and every one of his men with an effectiveness I found absolutely astounding. Any of them are welcome to work with my people at any time."

"Thank you." Gates was speechless at the commander's level of effusive praise.

"But that brings me to what I wanted to talk to you about, Captain." The commander came a couple of steps closer to Gates so he didn't have to say his peace at a volume where other people had to hear it. "Captain Gates, I don't appreciate having to bring out so many members of my team to stand by, do almost nothing, and be paid time and a half simply to watch the members of your precinct put on a show. So please, think twice before you call us next time."

Gates stared open-mouthed after the SWAT commander as he walked away. She watched as the last of almost two dozen of Newmark's men were being loaded into ambulances. _This was all done by Beckett and her team? *Four* people?_

* * *

Esposito was in a pretty good mood. As he led Newmark out of the loading bay doors to the police cruiser, he told the other man, "Man, professor, I gotta hand it to you. You went out with a *bang*. I tell ya, man, you're gonna go to prison for a long, long time."

"And that's if we don't tie him to Mark's murder," added Ryan with a smile. "Which is going to be pretty easy to do with all the drugs that we found here in this warehouse...watch your head, there-"

"Wait!" Newmark yelled, getting the attention of all four detectives.

Beckett was curious as to what out of Ryan and Esposito's comments had him spooked. "Is there something you feel the need to tell us, Professor Newmark?"

Newmark hesitated. He looked back at the remnants of his past, then around him at where his future was most certainly headed. In his mind he calculated the number of years he was going to end up in prison and how old he would be when he was released. Finally, with a loud sigh, something within Newmark seemed to relent. "Yes, I did kill Mark..."

The four detectives looked at each other, surprised at the clear confession in front of multiple witnesses-and that there was more to the sentence. "But-?" asked Ryan.

"*however*...I was very well compensated to do so."

* * *

Beckett and Castle entered the box and sat across from a very annoyed Jennifer Dyson. When Beckett noted that Dyson was the *only* one in the room, however, she reminded the other woman, "Ms. Dyson, I'm sure you have been informed of your right to have a lawyer present..."

"I have," Dyson replied. "I don't need one because *I didn't do anything wrong*."

"Really?" Castle asked with carefully controlled surprise. "Because we had a conversation with a Professor...Newmark that says otherwise."

Beckett had to fight off a smile as she heard Dyson's heart start racing while her face paled. "Wh-who?"

"David Newmark?" Beckett replied. "Your boyfriend's boss?"

"Ma-Mark wasn't my boyfriend," Dyson replied.

"Really?" asked Castle, "Because we spoke to several other TAs who told us you knew him...quite well."

Beckett continued to press forward, "We arrested Professor Newmark early this morning. He was very happy to tell us who paid him to kill Mark Schoenweiss. And when we're talking about murder for hire, there's one very simple rule-"

"Follow the money," chimed in Castle.

"Follow the money," Beckett repeated. "And guess who the money led us to..."

The pressure of her guilt finally broke Jennifer Dyson. "I supported him all through college, did you know that? I was there for him when they laughed at him, teased him-bullied him! I even stuck up for him when he was off on those crazy archaeology trips that blew the last of his fellowship money. And how did he repay me? He broke up with me the minute the first bimbette Kardashian lookalike he could find actually gave him the time of day! And when *she* couldn't take the heat, who did he come crawling back to? Good old reliable Jennifer, that's right! He came back to *me*! But when I told him to leave that skank...well, let's just say that rat bastard deserved to die."

"No one deserves to have the last moments of their life end like Mark's did, Jennifer," Beckett's voice was cold, calm and spoke of barely suppressed fury. "No. One."

Dyson fell apart in her chair as she realized exactly how much she had spat out in her little tirade. Weakly, she asked Beckett, "Can I call my lawyer now, please?"

"Officers!" Beckett called out to the uniforms waiting just outside the box, "Please escort Ms. Dyson to a phone where she can contact her lawyer."

The uniformed officers led Jennifer Dyson out of the box, followed closely by Castle. As Beckett stood up and gathered her papers to put them back in the file, she heard a voice behind her.

"Thank you...Lièrén."

Beckett picked up the now complete file, frowning in confusion. She was sure Castle had left the box, then shrugged it off, figuring she was simply mistaken. "Castle, what are you-?"

The detective nearly dropped the file when she realized who had just spoken to her. It most definitely was *not* Castle. Beckett barely found enough strength to gasp out, "Ma-Mark Schoenweiss, I presume?"

"Yes, Lièrén. I am humbled and honored that the Guardians found my work and my death worthy of your attention."

Beckett frowned in confusion. "Excuse me, but what the hell are you talking about?"

Mark blushed. "Oh...please forgive me, Lièrén. When I was trying to f-find you, I m-met this other spirit who told me that if I ever found you that I needed to act like I was meeting the Pope..."

That did it - Beckett couldn't help but burst out laughing. "I meant, what was that name you're calling me?"

"Lièrén?" Mark asked. "I...I thought that was your title?"

Beckett tried to correct him...but then she remembered how Lóng zhǔ kept calling Castle the Sìfāng and stopped. _Maybe Lièrén *is* my new title? _Beckett decided to set aside the whole 'title' thing for now and get down to business. "So what can I do for you, Mr. Schoenweiss?"

"Please, after everything you've done for me, call me Mark."

"All right," Beckett answered him, "What can I do for you, Mark?"

Mark's eyes shifted away from Beckett's gaze, suddenly unable to look at her. "I...I walked a difficult path in life, Lièrén..."

Beckett nodded. "I'm aware of the persecution you suffered because of your work."

"Then you are also aware of how my...work led to the end of my life?" Mark asked, getting another nod from Beckett. "Professor Newmark was planning to sell my formula to the highest bidder, Lièrén. I know you can understand better than anyone how potentially devastating that could have been."

A chill ran down Beckett's spine as she remembered getting pinned down behind the warehouse security office. Mark moved closer, trying to take Beckett's hands in his own and getting frustrated when his hands simply passed through them. "Lièrén, as long as a copy of that formula exists, so does the danger of it falling into the wrong hands..." He looked around at his surroundings before he added, "Even here. Lièrén, I cannot cross over until that formula is destroyed for good."

Beckett's eyes flew open in surprise. "You're asking me to destroy evidence-"

"Not you, Lièrén," Mark interrupted her, "the Sìfāng."

"Castle," Beckett was starting to understand his request. "You're asking me to ask the...Sìfāng to destroy the evidence that could convict the Professor of your murder?"

"Not destroy the evidence, Lièrén," Mark replied, "Alter it. Leave the base drugs intact but get rid of all the other chemicals in the formula."

"That would leave more than enough in evidence to convict Newmark of your murder..." Beckett mused.

Mark brought his point home, "But would destroy all evidence of the formula's original intent. Please, I'm begging you, Lièrén. As long as this formula exists then there is no way I will ever have rest or peace."

Beckett studied the face of the desperate spirit before her. Finally she realized that there was no way she could tell him no. "All right, I'll make sure it happens," she relented.

"Thank you," Mark responded gratefully. He looked as if a fifty pound weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

A glowing light appeared behind Mark's spirit. He turned to look at the light, then turned back to Beckett. "You've been working with Blair Sandburg, right?"

Beckett nodded. "Yeah?"

Mark hesitated, trying to find the right words...since he knew they would be his last. "Tell him-tell him I'm glad he finally found his Sentinel."

Beckett watched as Mark's spirit walked toward the light, then as the light, and the spirit of Mark Schoenweiss, faded and disappeared.


	13. Epilogue

Blair Sandburg watched his partner sleep in the seat next to him. A pang of jealousy ran through him: as much as Blair wished he could sleep on their red-eye flight back to Cascade, he knew that it was impossible.

He had far too much on his mind.

* * *

The Guardians all knew that they wanted to give Jim and Blair a proper send off and thank you, so Castle offered the one place that Alexis suggested where anyone with heightened senses would feel most relaxed: his house in the Hamptons.

Blair joined the group on the patio after his healing treatment with Lanie. Jim stared at him for so long Blair was afraid the Sentinel had zoned out on him. "What is it, Jim? Do I have a horn growing out of my head now or something?"

"It's just...it's weird. She couldn't have spent more than a minute with you...tops...and you look better than I've seen you in weeks!"

"Actually, this is the best I've *felt* in weeks. What was it that you said you did, Lanie?"

"Generalized cell regeneration. It's something I've been trying to practice for the past few days. Seems to work wonders on 'overworked' cops," replied Lanie with a wink at her boyfriend.

While everyone else started a run of good-natured teasing at Esposito, Blair had a different thought entirely. "Huh," he commented, "so that must be how they did it..."

Beckett was the first to notice Blair's different track to his train of thought. "Did what, Blair?"

"Well," Sandburg explained, "One of the big bonuses to living in Shangri La was the ability to live to a dramatically longer-than-average lifespan."

"How long did they live?" asked Lanie, now curious herself.

Blair replied, "One of the people in the legend was casually mentioned to be 350 years old."

Silence fell upon the group instantly. All eyes turned to Lanie for medical verification of Blair's reference to the legend. Castle was the first one to ask the question they were all thinking. "Lanie? Is this even *possible*?"

Lanie was fighting hard to suspend her automatic presumption of disbelief and think through everything she knew about the aging process and her own abilities. "You mean barring the higher-than-average percentage probability that we could all just end up dying violent deaths from some crazy supernatural fight or the fact that the majority of the people here are cops? Yes, it's definitely possible. Most of what we know about the aging process is based in the idea that the body's cells simply degrade over time. I *think* this process cancels that out, so theoretically...yeah. With regular treatments..."

The group fell silent, each completely lost in their own thoughts.

* * *

Blair looked out the window and watched the clouds roll by beneath him. Even setting the offer of literally anti-aging treatments aside, so much of this trip had shaken Blair to the core of who he was and what he believed his future would be. He had thought that his only objective was to train Jim on how to use his abilities, take notes on how Jim handled himself, write up his diss and be done with it. Much like he thought he would have seen with Detective Beckett.

But Beckett needed a guide. All of them did. In the Guardian legend, the monks who prepared to take up the mantle in case the last guardian died prepared their entire lives for the privilege. But this group...in the absence of a full-time guide, they grabbed help from anyplace they could find it.

Even from a graduate student who got most of his expertise from a bunch of books written by people who only ever watched a Sentinel and guide from a distance.

And yet...every one of the Guardians (and Alexis) referred to him as Jim's *guide*.  
And the title, to him, felt *right*.  
And that one fact scared the crap out of him.

Guides were usually tribal elders (or their sons) who prepared all their lives for the privilege. When they were eventually paired with a Sentinel, it was a lifetime bond of brotherhood, a til-death-do-us part kind of commitment.

Mark called Jim *his* Sentinel.  
Not *a* Sentinel, *his* Sentinel.  
So was he not just an observer studying Jim, but his *guide*?

If he really was Jim's guide, then his dissertation as he had proposed it was well and truly screwed. It would be impossible for Blair Sandburg, Jim Ellison's guide to let Blair Sandburg, PhD candidate submit a dissertation that would spell out his Sentinel's capabilities for the whole world to see.

"Chief?" Jim was in that state of half-awake where he was talking with his eyes still closed, hoping against hope to get back to sleep.

Blair checked his body position to make sure he wasn't infringing on his partner's space. "Sorry Jim, did I wake you?"

"Yes Blair, you were thinking so loud I'll bet Ryan could hear you back in New York." Jim sat up, knowing that when his partner was this stressed out over something, that the thing he needed most was a sounding board. "So what's up?"

"I was just thinking about my dissertation."

_I thought he thought about that thing *constantly*. That couldn't be all of it... _"And-?"

"Mostly I was thinking about how screwed I am."

_Okay, *that's* new. _"What do you mean?"

"Jim, I'm your *guide*."

Now Jim was truly confused. "This is news to you, chief?"

"Actually...yeah, it is. When we're in Cascade it's so easy for me to fall into the day-to-day routine of being your partner. But in New York, when everyone was looking at me with a fresh perspective-and for a fresh perspective-on what they were going through, they saw me as your *guide*. And I finally saw how much of what I do for you every day fits the job description."

"So what's the problem?" asked Jim.

Blair replied, "Jim, the problem is that I can't submit a dissertation full of observations on an anonymous subject *when you're my only subject.* The committee would have no way not to verify that my dissertation wasn't just a really boring work of fiction. But a *guide* would never deliberately do anything that would endanger his Sentinel. And I can't think of anything that would put you in more danger than publishing my dissertation with your name all over it."

Jim sat up to look his guide straight in the eye. "Sandburg, you're my *partner*. If we can't use your dissertation as the reason to keep you around anymore then we'll talk to Simon and come up with something. But I'm not going to let you lose your position at the precinct that easily."

"No?"

For the first time in the conversation, Jim heard a note of hope in his guide's voice. Satisfied that would be enough to help the younger man settle down the night, he declared, "Not a chance, chief. The place wouldn't be the same without you..."

* * *

"Rick, *when* can I take this blindfold off? We've been driving around for at least an hour..."

Castle pulled into a parking spot and shut off the engine. "I told you, Kate, I wanted it to be a surprise! That's why I needed to blindfold you, because you've been here before."

"I've been here before?" Now Beckett was even more intensely curious. She opened up her other senses as much as she dared, trying to pick up any clues. _We're near the river, that much is obvious..._

"Hey Castle, where are we?" Beckett nearly jumped into the river at the sound of Ryan's voice. The younger man winced as he realized Beckett had her hearing turned up. "Oops, sorry Beckett."

Beckett waived off the apology, forgiving her friend even as he said it. Recognizing what Ryan's appearance at their location *meant*, she turned back to pushing her boyfriend. "Okay Castle, everyone's here. Can I *please* take this blindfold off now?"

Seeing that everyone had, indeed, arrived, Castle took off the blindfold, and finally announced to the group, "Surprise!"

Beckett did, indeed, recognize the area the minute she saw it. "Castle, this is Zalman Drake's workshop-"

"Not anymore," Castle interrupted her. "I bought it this morning when we got back from the Hamptons. Edmund's been looking for some new capital to expand the museum, and I knew we could use it."

"For what?" asked Beckett.

Castle's smile grew even wider, if such a thing were possible. "You'll see. Follow me." He led the group to the wall of the warehouse and waited while Beckett found the secret panel he could never find to open the front door. Once everyone was inside he closed the door and turned on the lights.

"I figured every group of superheroes needs a hideout to ply their craft. Welcome to the Guardians' training center," announced Castle.

Each member of the group seemed to stare off in different directions. Beckett, Ryan and Esposito's eyes never left the ceiling. Castle started his explanations with them. "I figured with your talents, you guys might be finding the precinct gym a little dull. Think this might be a better place to workout?"

"Castle, this place is *incredible*..." Ryan knew that he was staring at a parkour facility on steroids. Ladders ran up the walls from the floor to the ceiling, where ropes had been strung through the crossbeams. Those crossbeams supported eight large wooden platforms each, creating an environment an entire species of monkeys would be happy to call home. The floor was a maze of rock climbing walls ranging from 15 to 30 feet tall-tall enough to provide a challenging climb but short enough to jump to as an alternate method to reach the ceiling. And what little floor space there was left was covered in padding 5 feet deep-enough to ensure that a head-first drop from one of the ceiling ropes wouldn't prove fatal.

Castle poked his head in between Ryan and Esposito's heads to urge them on. "Why don't you guys go give the place a good breaking in?" They didn't have to be asked twice-the trio took off at a sprint, Beckett climbing up the ladders and Ryan and Esposito jumping to the top of the climbing walls and using them and running tracks.

Castle then turned to Lanie and his daughter, who had both wandered over to the opposite corner of the room which was lined floor-to-ceiling with bookshelves and a rolling ladder allowing them to reach the top shelves. "I asked Blair to give me a list of every book you guys might find helpful in your research. I know the shelves are only about 1/3rd full, which is why you guys each have a PC on the desk for Internet searches, and more important, to order books. I opened a bank account just for you guys to fill those bookshelves, and if you need more money, just let me know." Turning back to where Beckett was swinging from the ceiling with her two fellow detectives, Castle told his girlfriend, "Kate, there are a bunch of books here on how you can work better with your senses. When you get a chance you should come check them out."

Hanging from one of the ceiling crossbeams, Beckett yelled her response, "I'll do that, Castle. Thanks!"

Alexis ran over and nearly tackled her father in an excited hug. "Thank you soooo much for this, dad!"

"You're very welcome, pumpkin," replied Castle, returning the embrace. "I just thought that if we're going to get half as good with our abilities as Jim is with his, we needed a place where we could all relax and practice without worry."

Lanie started thumbing idly through one of the Sentinel journals. "Really good idea, Castle...really good idea..."

Alexis looked around and realized that one person didn't have their own space-that she saw. "What about you, dad? Where are you going to practice?"

Castle pulled Alexis to the one wall that was smooth and empty, except for a...coffin. "Come and see." He opened the door to the coffin and pushed her through, then followed her.

Confused, Alexis asked, "Dad? This room is empty."

"Exactly!" exclaimed Castle. "It's a big empty room where I can do anything I want!" To prove his point, Castle started throwing fireballs around the room, exploding on every wall leaving a blast of black soot behind. "I enchanted the walls and the ceiling in here so that nothing I do will ever leave permanent damage."

Alexis threw herself into an embrace with her father once again. "Hey dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Welcome home."

* * *

**Well, that's it for this one, kids! Please press the blue button and let me know what you thought of it. I do take constructive criticisms and requests...sometimes I like those even more that the ubiquitous "Update please!" What did I do that you liked? What fell flat? Did my action writing improve? How about the twist in the murder case at the end? Am I balancing the development of the characters well, or should I just focus more on one Guardian over the others in the future?**

**And please let me know if you want to see more of this series. From the dismal response I got to "The Morning After", it's clear that you want action and case work over the 'relationship stuff'. Hey, I'm all good for that! **

**But on that note, I have a question for you guys. The next case is going to be a murder in Chinatown that will shed even more light on the origins of the Guardians. Now, I can do that one of two ways: Either A) I bring in an old Chinese man who will be involved with the case and explain the history of the Guardians, or B) Castle could find the journal of the last Guardian of the previous generation and read it during the case a la "The Blue Butterfly". Which one would you guys prefer to see? Leave a comment and let me know!**


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